Dear Lara
by skabs
Summary: When Lily learns of her possible demise, she thinks of who might take care of Harry... She thinks maybe her distant cousin, Lara? Xover with Tomb Raider movie
1. Chapter 1

Edit:04-18-08: i just fixed some mistakes like the gun strapped to Lara's thigh... thank you wolf-in-hell for pointing that out! and thanks to Isaboo for correcting the spelling of Lily's name!

All right, i know i know i know!! i've been writing my harry/buffy xover, but i don't have enough to post yet. i was cleaning my room and watching tomb raider at the same time when the letter just popped into my head. the rest came out because i wanted a bit more back ground... i don't know if this is going to be a one shot or not... if anyone has any ideas i'm open to suggestions...

btw- Hilary is my fav tomb raider character, in case you can't tell... and ignore the incongruity with the time line and electronic devices... i realize that SIMON couldn't have been built in the eighties, so i just bumped up the time line because i like Bryce and his gagets...

i didn't do a lot of editing on this, just thought i'd post it to get it out of my head. enjoy anyway!

tomb raider and harry potter do not belong to me.

* * *

Hilary was always turned out neatly. A ruthlessly correct tie, starched shirt and tailored three piece suit were completed with shoes shiny enough to brush your teeth in. He wasn't consistent with his use of gloves, but his hair was always neatly brushed and moussed into place, his teeth always flossed and white, though he rarely smiled. He had an impeccable accent, correct and fluid, along with a tone that could cut through iron, though rarely ruffled his charges feathers.

It wasn't, as it happened, Lara's feathers that where being ruffled at the moment. And his amicable and polite exterior was actually at the breaking point. The damn owl was trying to tear his face off!

"Hilary, what are you doing?" Lara started down the main staircase, in awe of the battle going on between her butler and his avian friend. As soon as her voice rang out, the tableau paused, and the bird gently lit upon her shoulder. Lara grinned as Hilary tried to put himself back together, tugged sternly on his vest and brushed back his hair with his hands, then nodded to the lady and cleared his throat.

"That creature landed on my kitchen window sill and proceeded to attack me when I tried to remove whatever that thing is from its leg!" His voice was the very picture of offended dignity.

"Well, the message tube is directed to me," she tapped the birds leg and she politely held it out so Lara could undo her letter. When she had the tube the bird flew off her shoulder and perched on the stair railing. There were two letters; one had her name written on it with red ink in a familiar loopy hand. The other looked to be a lawyer's letter, with a correctly addressed and severe black ink and gold embossed seal on the back.

"Very well, then," Hilary took a few deep breaths and nodded. "If you'll excuse me, I was in the middle of setting for dinner."

"Of course, I'll be in shortly," she waved absently as she opened the letter from her cousin first. "Don't forget to tell Bryce about dinner. He's been fixing SIMON and I'm sure he'll forget to eat again."

"Of course," and Hilary turned on his heal, not even bothering to chide that lady's didn't sit on stairwells to read their mail. Lara had always been an unusual lady.

_Dear Lara,_

_I hope this letter finds you well, as by now you are aware that if you are reading this, I am not. I have stated my will very clearly, but my lawyers implore me to send for you in the event that the other recipients may not welcome your presence. I have written this letter in case that may hold true, and you shall only receive it if I am, I am sorry to say, dead. _

_I can only pray that you arrive in London in time to attend the reading, if you are not off on some fantastical adventure. I shall not blame you if you are, your life has always been one of action, unlike mine until very recently. You see, James, Harry and I have gone into hiding, or will have by the time I seal this letter and hand it to my lawyers to deliver just in case. Isn't Belinda a beautiful owl? She will stay with you and send your return acceptance or rejection to Henroy and Fitz, my lawyers. _

_I know, you're reading through and begging me to come to the point. You always like facts in a straight line, but you've always been better at puzzles than I am, so I can write, with complete honesty. I know you've cracked my "secret society" by now. You always asked such pointed questions at those reunions, and I could never keep enough behind my mouth. You know, of course, that I am a Witch, that I went to school for my gift and met James there. He is a wonderful Wizard, and he loves me dearly. I put in that last part so you could smile and chide me for my foolishness, for James is that same "git" I told you about when I was fifteen and you were giving me that wonderful advice on the male of the species. You told me, if I recall correctly, that men cannot help being idiots. You told me that if I were to watch him, how he acted around others than myself, I would have a better clue as to his character. You were much more experienced with boys at seventeen than I was at fifteen! When I finally saw through the mask he put on for my benefit, I had to admit that with very few exceptions he was a decent human being. Instead of beating up an old friend who'd reduced me to tears, he held me and let me cry on his shoulder. I really think that was a turning point for him. He ceased that relentless terrorizing of our rival house (at least when he didn't have reason to) and really began to listen to me. And as we got closer I discovered things about him that gave him a selfless glow, mostly in regards to a few friends of his. Not that I'm painting roses on him darling, but he wasn't quite the ill mannered ass I had believed him to be at first glance. _

_I did send you an invitation to the wedding, but I suppose you know that, seeing as how three weeks later that wonderful Nepalese shawl and glass bracelets appeared in the mail. James was a little put out that the bracelets don't fit him… and no, darling, I'm not kidding. He thinks they're marvelous little things and put an unbreakable charm on them first chance he got. He likes it when I wear pretty things like that, and I'm not usually much for ornamentation, as you most likely recall. _

_And, of course, that wonderful crib blanket you sent when I told you of Harry. He almost cried down the house when I took it away to clean it. He was afraid he'd never see it again. He likes it almost as much as Pa'foo (his stuffed grim). _

_Now that I'm writing about Harry, I remember what exactly it was that I wanted to ask you. I know that our mothers were cousins, so we're not particularly closely related, but I felt as though I could ask you. You were always my favorite relative, even better than Petunia, at least since she started having "opinions" that I could not understand. I am afraid that if something were to happen to myself and James that she would be the only person available to place Harry with. James tells me that I am being irrational, Sirius is Harry's Godfather and will love him, but I am terrified. The way we are going into hiding means that only Sirius knows where we are. In order to get to us, they have to go through him first, which would leave Harry at loose ends. I love James's other friends dearly, but Peter still doesn't know which end of Harry is up, and no body would let Remus take Harry. I would, but the government still has nasty taboos on werewolves, and how could he really care for Harry during the full moon? Of course now I am off on a tangent again, railing against prejudices that will likely never change. _

_The point is, if you are agreeable, would you take Harry in? Would you care for him, for me? I don't want him to go to Petunia, she has some odd notions about the wizarding world, and Harry is already experiencing accidental magic. Just the other day he turned his father's hair green. James almost did a jig on the ceiling then realized his only son gave him Slytherin colors. He packed Harry upstairs with paint swatches so quickly I swear Harry is going to take an unnatural liking to green just to spite him. _

_Remember the time, I was nine I believe, that I climbed that tree in your backyard? I was running away from Petunia, because she pinched me rather hard, and suddenly found myself in that tree house of yours. Nobody else could get up, remember? When you asked me how I did it, and I didn't have any idea, that darling was accidental magic. I apparated, which is a skill they don't teach you until you are sixteen, but when you are a child you can make all sorts of things happen in your panic. I can't image that is something Petunia or her fat husband could tolerate. But you, with all your adventures and brave ways, you could take it in stride. I know you could react to something like that with your usual aplomb. _

_Along with this letter, if you are receiving this when I hope you will, my lawyers should send you the time and place of our Will reading. It will be in their offices in Diagon Alley. Yes, I know the name is odd, but when you arrive you will realize that the name is quite tame considering the wizarding world as a whole. One of their secretary's will be available to guide you in, for if you are not a Wizard/Witch it is a rather difficult place to spot. _

_As always I look to you for guidance and support, not for myself, but for my son. I know I am putting you on the spot, and I pray that this reaches you in time, and that you are not too angry with me. _

_Love you always, _

_Lily Evans Potter_

* * *

One of the first things that Lara noticed when she arrived at her "cousins" was that the noise inside the house was deafening. And that was from standing on the street, well away from the front door. A child was bawling his lungs out, it was a wonder he wasn't mute by now. Of course, if Lara was in a crib, by herself, in the bright sun next to an open window, in this chill, she'd be pissed too. She stood on the front porch for a minute, and rang the doorbell when it was obvious that no one was coming to sooth the crying baby. Of course, after ringing the doorbell, she let herself in and walked straight to the child. It took her three seconds to realized that he was wet, and miserable, with tears running down his chubby cheeks and snot clogging his nose, he looked as bad as he no doubt felt.

He quieted to whimpers as soon as Lara lifted him, then hiccupped a bit as she bent in search of a diaper bag.

"What are you doing here?" a snide lash came from the stairwell.

"I am taking care of my nephew Patty, what does it look like?" Lara turned to glare. "Where is his diaper bag?"

"He didn't come with one," Petunia crossed her arms in defiance. "When those people dropped him on my doorstep they didn't leave one with him, or food, or clothes, or anything other than his stupid blanket and a letter telling me they'd give me more details later. It's not like I need more details! My sister and her stupid husband got blown up and they stuck their freak of a child with me!"

"Petunia, I could really care less, all I need right now is a diaper," Lara filed the information away for later though.

"They're upstairs in Dudley's room…" she stopped short as Lara started to follow. "Oh no you don't! I don't want him anywhere NEAR my son! You keep his unnatural ways down here!" and stomped off without waiting for a response.

"Damn Harry, darling, what idiot left you here?" Lara cuddled her nephew, despite his wet bottom, and promised him right then that she'd never let him stay with Petunia. Not for one more day.

* * *

Lara waited in her hotel for the summons she was assured would come. She passed the time playing with Harry and making sure that no permanent harm had come to him by staying with Petunia for a week. His face was washed, gently with a luke warm washcloth as per Hilary's hasty phoned in instructions, and he was dressed in a brand new one piece she'd purchased an hour ago from the hotel's vacation supply store along with diapers and other baby supplies.

Harry was crawling right along, giggling hysterically every time Lara picked him up, and then wiggled to be put back down. In fact, since they'd left the Dursley's Harry had been enthusiastic and energetic. He didn't stop watching everything. He seemed to study each face and every bright color. Sounds held his attention for long moments, the lights blinking from the traffic signals sent him into peals of laughter. It got to the point where every time he giggled, Lara giggled too. That was when she decided that going up to the room and tiring the kid out might be a good idea.

He was finally winding down when a soft knock came at the door. Lara set Harry in the middle of the king sized bed, and piled the pillows around him so he couldn't crawl off the edge, before going to answer it.

"Lady Croft?" A tiny blond lady in a neat maroon suit and tidy black ankle boots stood at the door. In her hand was a clip board with several papers and a picture of Lara and Lilly from the last reunion they'd had.

"Yes, I assume you're from Henroy and Fitz?" Lara held out a hand to welcome the lady in.

"Yes, I am Stephanie Blackwell, I've been handling the correspondence, so it was decided that I should escort you," she broke off as a laughing Harry appeared at the open doorway to the bedroom. Her eyes were wide as she took in the black haired youth, his brilliant green eyes, and the scar that his bangs didn't quite conceal yet. "Oh, my!"

"Harry!" Lara moved quickly and scooped up her nephew. "I put those pillows there for a reason. I should have paid more attention to your mother's earlier letters, you are quite the escape artist, aren't you!" she nuzzled his neck and was rewarded with a giggle.

"Is he quite all right? I wasn't aware he was injured in the attack!"

"Apparently, he's fine. It's healing well and he doesn't really seem to notice it. Let me get him into a jumper Miss. Blackwell, and we'll be right along."

"Should he come out into the open though? I would think he'd be a target!" Miss. Blackwell stepped back as Lara glared.

"Why would he be a target? This is still something that hasn't been explained in anyway to me. All I have so far is that some maniac took an interest in my cousin and blew her and her husband up!"

"He… You-Know-Who…"

"No, I'm sorry, I don't know, who?"

"The Dark Lord, Harry defeated him, so his Death Eaters might be after him!"

"This is starting to sound like a bad Saturday morning cartoon," Lara bounced Harry on her hip and started speaking to him in playful tones. "Isn't it just? Your parents get blown up, you kill the bad guy, and now you're being sent into exile… and I'm sure that in a few years you'll be recalled to fight yet another baddie. Yep, because you are so good at it, you could do it in your sleep!" She laughed as she slid a hooded sweater over the giggling black haired child, if she didn't laugh she'd shoot the woman, and plopped a ridiculously big hat on his little head. "There, that should do as a disguise, then, shouldn't it?"

* * *

Harry didn't like the big hat. He couldn't see as much with it's floppy brim in his way. But he couldn't take it off either. It tied under his chin and he didn't have the dexterity in his fingers yet to navigate bows. But he had other ways of getting the hat off. He could cry, and Pons, Pa'foo or Moo-moo would take it off. But as he continued crying, none of them showed. So he kept on crying, but not because of the hat anymore.

* * *

Harry was still whimpering a bit as Lara sat in the offered chair at the office. It looked pretty much like every other lawyers office she'd been in, the only difference being the moving portraits and the interoffice paper airplane memos. She thought that was rather intriguing in fact, surely more fun than an intercom system. As she was the first to come in she got her pick of chairs. Considering the secretary's concern she chose one out of eyesight from the window and the door, almost hidden in the tiny room, next to the lawyer. She watched with thinly veiled curiosity as Miss. Blackstone offered her tea, and then conjured it up with the flick of a wrist and a clear command in Latin.

"Thank you," she accepted the cup and bounced Harry a bit on her knee. She had dressed carefully for the meeting, as Lilly used to. She wore a long skirt and sturdy knee high boots, and a long sleeved t-shirt under a primly buttoned vest. Of course, she was also prepared for any eventuality. The skirt was split well enough for total freedom of movement, a 45 was strapped to her thigh, and she had several throwing daggers hidden under her vest. Her long brown hair was tied back in a severe French braid, and a few explosive surprises were hidden within it. Concealed in the heel of her boots she had a lock-picking kit and a small first aid kit. She also had a few marine friends haunting the alley outside. Once she'd learned, or really sussed out, about Lilly's education a few other things in her life made sense. Mostly a few "lucky situations" her friends had gotten out of alive that really should have killed them. She'd called them from the hotel after Miss. Blackstone spilled more complete details. When she told them what she was doing in Magical London, they'd offered their assistance, with not a single favor being used. It seemed that James was quite popular in their policing ways, and it was an honor to protect his cub.

The door swung open, and in walked a rather scruffy looking man. His light brown hair was sticking up in all different directions, his eyes red and puffy from crying, his hands shook a bit as he raised a handkerchief up to his nose. As he blew out, Harry shot out his hands.

"Moo-Moo!" he exclaimed, clapping his pudgy hands as the man jumped about a foot in the air. The shock only lasted a bare moment though; she had to give him credit for that. He was across the room in two seconds, and a second later had Harry clutched to his chest. The way Harry was laughing and patting the mans cheeks told Lara that she should take a deep breath and not immolate the man where he stood.

"Cub! My little cub, oh I missed you!" he was nuzzling Harry's ear, his hands firmly under the child's rear and soft on his back, supportive but not restrictive. He seemed to collapse in the next chair over, all the energy he used to get to Harry used up.

"Moo-Moo! Pa'foo!" Harry's little head swiveled around, looking for someone else, and he didn't notice the sudden tensing of one of his favorite people.

"Sorry little Prongslet," he hugged Harry gently. "Padfoot won't be coming in today."

* * *

The rest filtered in, taking their seats calmly, but still glancing over at Lara curiously. Not one of them knew her, of course, and only Remus had ever been shown pictures of Lilly's distant cousin. No one knew who she was, as a consequence, except Remus and he was keeping his own council… with Harry at the moment, babbling non-stop to the werewolf as if he could understand the incomprehensible baby babble.

Lara seemed to be completely ignoring them, but of course she knew exactly who they were. She didn't believe in entering a situation without all the knowledge she could possibly have at her disposal. Albus Dumbledore, with an impressive list of nonsense titles following after him like little geese, sat next to the window. It was a bit telling, as it was the farthest seat from Harry, and therefore he distanced himself from the baby he'd thought he'd placed in a home far away from the magical community. If he was making a point, Lara wished he wouldn't. Minerva McGonagall, in contrast, sat next to Remus Lupin, and took turns making funny faces and tugging on Harry's hands as he let her.

There was an older woman, gray haired but still fair faced, who sat a seat away from Dumbledore, and held a sleeping blond infant in her arms. Lara guessed that since the Longbottom's hadn't shown, but the child was Neville (she had a picture of both Harry and Neville that Lily had taken at their half birthdays. The kids had been hugging, it was very cute, she felt the need to check for cavity's after seeing that) so the woman must be his grandmother. In between Dumbledore and Mrs. Longbottom sat an Auror, who was introduced as Mr. Moody. He was missing a leg, and had several interesting scars. He wore a device over his eye, though with a start Lara realized that it wasn't over his eye, but replacing it instead. He looked her over, until she started to think he could see under her clothes, and gave her a knowing nod. She didn't know why, but for some reason, he approved of her.

There was one chair left, between Mrs. Longbottom and Mrs. McGonagall, but Miss. Blackstone swept in and took it, sitting primly with a quill and a piece of parchment in her hands. She was going to transcribe the event, apparently.

"All right, hello all and welcome to my office. My name is Laurence Fitz, and if we can all state our names for the record we can get down to business," The man who walked in and shut the office door was a tall and cheerful bloke. He had long strawberry blond hair kept in a neat plait tied with a piece of thin black ribbon. He wore the dark pin striped suit like he'd been born wearing it, and the long black robe he wore over it he took off and laid on the back of his chair as soon as possible. His clear blue eyes slid over all assembled and rested on Lara.

"Yes, of course Mr. Fitz. My name is Lara Croft."

"Lady Croft, may I be the first to welcome you to the Wizarding World?" He asked, giving her his hand, and then kissing the back of hers in a smooth practiced gesture that seemed unrehearsed to any not in the know.

"I've been in the know for a while now Mr. Fitz," she flirted back, well aware that he was setting a stage. "But as no one has seen fit to welcome me to it yet, you may be."

"I am Remus Lupin, and I would care to welcome you as well Miss. Croft. I'd heard so much about you from Lily," his eyes were bright as he played with Harry, passing him back to Lara for a moment so he could pull a napkin from his pocket. Harry had slobbered some on his hand.

"Her letters were full of James and his friends. I feel I know you already, please call me Lara."

"If you'll call me Remus," he returned, and then held out his hands for Harry again. It was so neatly done that none in the room could doubt Lara's right to be present, muggle or not.

The other's all introduced themselves, pausing once on Augusta Longbottom as she shifted Neville and asked Lara if she was getting on with Harry all right.

"I'm afraid it hasn't gotten out to the general public yet, but Neville's parents, my son and his wife, were hurt badly in a Death Eater attack. We're not sure how long it could take for them to recover, so as much as I know Alice would love to take Harry in as his Godmother, it's just not possible at the moment."

"Mrs. Longbottom," Lara kept her gaze gently. "You have enough to worry about, Harry is perfectly fine with me, and you need to concentrate on your grandson."

"Of course, darling, of course," Augusta smiled gently and shushed Neville as he started to fussily wake up. After a moment he settled back down and introductions resumed.

"All right, now that we've got that out of the way, then let us get down to the reading of the will."

* * *

Lara would have laughed if she didn't want to hit the old man so much. Albus Dumbledore was still trying to convince her that Petunia would be a better choice for Harry's guardian.

"Look, Professor Dumbledore, Lily and James stated clearly in the will that if either of Harry's Godparents were not able to care for him, they wanted him to come to me. If you have a problem with that, take it up with a lawyer!" She held out her hands to Remus, who was cuddling Harry close and was reluctant to say goodbye. "Though I warn you, my lawyers are paid very well, and have a keen nose for bullshit."

"I'm merely worried about the lack of wards around your house," Dumbledore followed as Remus reluctantly released Harry, but did not stop walking with them.

"Then you may put as many wards as you want around my house. You would have to do that anyway with Petunia, and at least this way Harry will get fed and changed when he needs it!" she didn't mean to say that last part, but she was fed up, sincerely pissed at the old man for leaving Harry like that. To her surprise it wasn't Dumbledore that requested more information, it was McGonagall. After Lara told her about how she found Harry, Minerva spun around and smacked Dumbledore across the shoulder.

"Didn't I tell you they were the worst sort of Muggles!"

After that shocking slap it took very little time to shut the Headmaster up. He was rather upset that his brilliant plan had failed so stupendously. Though he did promise to get himself, Moody and a team of Warders to Lara's residence as fast as humanly possible, he made an excuse about school lists and supplies and popped away through a fireplace quicker than you could blink.

"Remus, I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind? I was going to go back to the hotel and get some food, I'm starving," Remus paused for a moment, trying to work out the actual invitation in his head. "Yes Remus, I was asking you to come over for dinner." She could almost see the gears working in his head, it was an education watching that man think.

"I would love to," Remus replied, blushing a bit. But he held out his hands, now knowing they were going to the same place, he wanted to hold on to Harry.

* * *

It had been a while since Remus had sat across from a pretty girl with food in between them. In fact it had been since Hogwarts, four years ago now. He still didn't have any idea what she wanted, but he knew that she liked her steak rare, her baked potato with sour cream and chives, and a nice burgundy to go with them. They'd already fed Harry and put him to bed, chuckling over his large yawns and insistent efforts to stay up and play some more, but ultimately he laid down and fell asleep. He wondered if this was what James had felt like when he was with Lily? But he shook his head at the thought. That had been true love, the kind that could make observers uncomfortable and happy and sad all at the same time. Lara was a warm person, a beautiful one, but he was quite positive he wasn't in love, not even puppy love (but the woman could get the blood pumping!). He shifted a bit in his seat as he started in on his supper.

Lara waited until Remus had inhaled most of his steak and half of his potato before broaching the subject. Delicate, she had to remind herself, not to much to fast.

"Remus?"

"Yes?" he sat back in his chair and took a small sip of wine. He was ready for whatever she could throw at him… or so he thought.

"I love Harry dearly," she started out and glanced back at the bedroom where Harry was dozing. "And as much as I would love to be a full time mom, I just don't have the ability at the moment. I think I'm going to need to hire a nanny…"

"A nanny?" Remus started racking his brain, trying to think of magical nanny's that might not warp Harry's opinion of himself overly much. He was already being referred to as The-Boy-Who-Lived. No kid deserved that title.

"Yes, and I would like to hire you for the position, if it's not a bother," she was rarely nervous about anything, but she was about this. According to Lilly the werewolf had problems holding a job because of his infliction, and he was inordinately sensitive about pity jobs.

"Me?" he set the wine glass down and studied her curiously. All manners of thoughts were going through his head. If he accepted… he'd have Harry around all the time! He could essentially do what he wanted and raise his best friends child the way he should have been allowed to if those stupid laws weren't posted! He'd have a job, which was a big plus, and it was something he could do easily. He could tutor Harry, from early on, and make sure he had a set of values that his mother could be proud of! Then he shook his head. He couldn't. All the very valid points Dumbledore had made came flooding back. He'd threatened to kidnap Harry, to just take him away and live with him in the woods. They'd be fine! But Dumbledore had pointed out, who would protect Harry on the full moon? How could he care for an infant when he couldn't even care for himself?

"And before you ask," Lara interrupted as he opened his mouth to decline regretfully. "I should tell you that I have a very efficient Butler and a very nice friend living with me who both have a horrible amount of siblings and nieces and nephews. They know how to handle children, and they would be more than happy to help out on your… moon days. That is assuming, that I wouldn't be there to take care of him as well. It's just that… well," time for the big guns. "I do find myself a bit nervous about the magic thing. Not scared or anything, but what if he does something like, turn my couch into a chicken? Lilly turned a hat into a rabbit once and couldn't figure out how to turn it back…"

"I guess… we could give it a try?" Remus offered, and then shot back the rest of his wine.

"We'll set you up at the house," Lara smirked, buisness acomplished. "I have 38 rooms; we should be able to find one that suits you."

* * *

all right, there you go! that's what flashed through my head as i was sorting laundry... which reminds me, i have to switch to the dryer now... yeeps! hope you liked it!


	2. Chapter 2

while thinking about my other harry crossover i kept on coming back to this... i wasn't really even sure i was going to continue this story, but it wouldn't leave me alone. so here you go!

just a warning though- HUGE time jump from the first chapter to this one... seven years in fact!

* * *

"Well we can do it my way, or we can all come back in time for the next alignment and you're welcome to try and kill me then, in oh, say, another 5,000 years?" Lara smirked, well aware that if they didn't do it her way, she didn't have to worry about the damned clock anymore. Six of one, half a dozen of another. Though she lost her smirk when Alex's attention diverted from the watch in front of him and locked onto the area behind her knee…

"Hi Alex!"

"Harry?!"

Her nephew was trickier than she'd ever give him credit for. Though it seemed she'd have to start paying closer attention now. Harry had somehow managed to hide away in her jeep, follow her through the temple, and sneak up behind her as she was taunting the villains. She'd have to let him know, it just wasn't done, the heroine couldn't be so shocked. It was... unprofessional.

"You brought your eight year old nephew?" Alex asked, incredulous.

"Of course not," though she blushed before she admitted. "He followed me." Alex laughed, and then looked back at the watch.

"Seventeen, sixteen…"

* * *

"That was soooooo COOL!" Harry hadn't stopped babbling for twelve miles. Sitting at one end of the boat he fiddled with the triangle piece and watched the shiny colors change from one end to the other. It was like looking at an oil spot in the sun. He didn't think Aunt Lara could see it though, she didn't think it was all that pretty an artifact. Of course, she had been distracted by the stone guardians, and then the four faced statue. She'd shoved Harry back before jumping onto the spear, and told him that if he wasn't still hugging that wall when she came back, she'd know why.

_He never understood that threat, but the growl that accompanied it was crystal clear. Do Not Move. She'd gotten the piece, and started to return for the clock, but was distracted by a guardian who was inching its way toward Harry. Harry, who was standing in the exact spot she told him to stand. She started to run, but was distracted by the bullets heading her way. Then she cursed, because she would have to thank Alex. _

_Alex had seen the danger heading for Harry, and ran straight for the child, scooping him up and running straight for the exit much to Harry's displeasure. _

"_She told me to wait there! She'll kick your ass! She's not kicking mine for this! No Way!" _

"_Who has been teaching you the English language young man? Does Lara swear like that in front of you?" Alex asked as he dodged yet another stone guardian. With hardly a thought he kept running, swinging back with the arm that wasn't holding Harry over his shoulder, and shot back with his Desert Eagle. Another statue bites the dust. _

"_I think that we should keep this little chat between the two of us, right buddy?" Harry gave Alex his best "I'm an innocent, you should trust me" grin. It didn't work, Alex couldn't see his manipulative grin as Harry was currently talking to his shoulder blade, but the tone of his voice was cloying sweet. _

"_You're getting better at that," Alex scoffed. "But you're not getting a cookie out of me this time…" He reached the end of the hallway and was about to fling Harry through to the waiting workers and go back for Lara when he realized that everyone who had still been in the temple had followed him out. He was almost bombarded with locals and militia men, then stumbled a bit as Powell barreled full force into his unencumbered shoulder. _

"_She's got my triangle," he snarled, then noticed the kid. "Well, at least I've got something of hers…" _

_Harry didn't wait for Alex to protest, he could feel the man gathering under him for a good short arm punch to the chin, he bit Manifred Powell as soon at the man's hand was close enough. He bit hard enough to draw blood, then oomphed a bit as he was unceremoniously sat on the ground._

"_Look, Powell, I signed on to bring you out here and get your artifact. No where in my contract does it say I need to help you kidnap a kid."_

"_Well, then Mr. West, where is my artifact? One or the other," his accent was upper crust clipped, correct, and made Harry want to scrub his entire body with a very harsh loofah. _

"_Slimy bastard," Harry mumbled, and then grinned as Alex shrugged._

"_I'm just saying, I'm not watching the kid, you'll have to get one of your trained monkeys to do that." He indicated one of the marines. Harry could get away from a meat head easily…_

_And as something in the temple exploded, erupting dust and rocks and pieces of god only knows what, Lara was flung out into their midst. In the confusion she grabbed Harry by the back of his t-shirt and began to book it. She could only run for a short time. Harry was good, he followed her on her training runs at home sometimes, but he still tired quickly. There was a waterfall… she knew she could survive the jump, she looked down at her nephew. _

_He was smiling so hard his face was apt to crack wide open._

"_Enjoying yourself are you?" she asked, amused._

"_Oh, yeah! The only thing better than running from bad guys is beating up bad guys and stealing their toys! We're two for three!" _

"_Two?" she was pretty sure she stole something, kicked ass, AND was running away from the bad guys._

"_The guardians weren't bad guys, you technically didn't kick bad guy butt…" he censored himself, knowing she'd probably cuff his ear anyway, but at least she'd give him points for trying. "But I did bite the slimy guy pretty good… he might need stitches."_

"_Yes, so, three for three… we're a team remember?" she stopped at the edge of the waterfall, knowing that Alex was behind her. _

"_Are you going to shoot me Alex?"_

"_Come on Lara! You're making my job harder than it has to be!"_

"_That's half the fun Alex!" Harry giggled as only a child could. He knew Alex wouldn't hurt them, so did Lara… so did Alex. But they had to play the game._

"_Later babydoll," she smirked as his gun dropped, well aware that the rustling in the trees behind him were the marines. She grabbed Harry by the back of his t-shirt and jumped. _

* * *

"If you EVER sneak aboard my mission again, I… I just don't know what I'll do to you Harry, but it won't be pleasant." She told him as she dialed the mansion. Lord knew what a hissy fit Remus would be in by now.

"Croft residence, The Lady is not in at the moment, may I take a message?" Hilary answered in his usual way, not a feather ruffled, though Lara could hear Remus in the background.

"_Is it Harry? Tell him to get his ass home now! Has something happened to Harry? Is he alright? For Merlin's sake Hilary!" _

"Harry is fine, he's with me Hilary, tell the overanxious Were that his cub is here with not a scratch on him."

"Of course Lara," and she could hear the muffled explanation on the other end followed by an explosive grunt as Remus obviously shoved Hilary aside in his dive for the phone.

"Harry? Harry? Are you alright? Are you bleeding? Have you been shot? Have you eaten a good breakfast?" Harry tried to wave the phone away as Lara held it down for him.

"He won't stop until you speak with him," Lara pointed out.

"But he's gonna yell at me!"

"You play little boy, you pay."

Harry pouted a bit, but knew it wouldn't get him past this trial, so he accepted the phone with a groan that quickly turned into a cheerful grin when he greeted his uncle.

"Uncle Remus! I'm perfectly fine!" he nodded as he listed to Remus spew forth all his worry and probably twelve million cups of coffee. Remus had come to love coffee, as it was the only thing that would let him keep up with the energetic Harry, it didn't have a half bad taste once you'd gotten used to it.

After an exhausting back and forth, in which Harry swore never to hide in Lara's jeep and follow her half way across the world and Remus admitted that he might be drinking too much coffee, Lara told Bryce to pack for Italy.

"Bring Remus as well, that way we can send Harry home," Lara had a bad feeling about the second part of the mission, and she really didn't think Harry could handle it. Or even if he could handle it, that he should.

"Why can't I come with you?" Harry bugged as Lara hung up and thanked the monk for it's use.

"Because Harry, this is dangerous. I am not joking around," she insisted as he opened his mouth to protest. "This is very big, and I cannot protect you through it. If Alex hadn't saved you…" Lara knelt next to the raven haired boy and flung her arms around him. "You could have been hurt. And I promised your mother I would keep you safe." Harry settled as he felt his aunt shake. She'd been really worried, and she'd shoved that aside to do the job and protect him, he realized. His respect and awe for her only increased as she pulled herself together and took his hand calmly.

"I'll go back to England with Remus," Harry promised.

"Thank you." She shook his hand a little, and then started down the hall. With a deep breath she felt the stillness in the air, the absolute peace, and looked back down at her nephew. "Would you like to try meditating again? I think, maybe, in this place we could solve your fidgeting issues."

* * *

He sat, in full lotus, encased in a sphere of white energy. He hovered a bit, the bottom of the sphere barely touching the ground, his hands relaxed, his face still as a statue. She could see his chest move slightly as he breathed, but beyond that and the living sphere of magic there was no indication that Harry was alive. The monks, after finishing their daily meditations, had turned to see Lara sitting, staring at her nephew. Most of them had left, small smiles on their faces, only one elder remained. He gave Lara a tea that healed her arm, and sat back to study Harry's energy manipulation.

"Poke him." The elder told Lara.

"Poke him? He is surrounded by pure energy!' Lara knew that monks could have a sharp sense of humor, in fact he'd already gotten her with the horrible tea, but _poke_ him?

"With you he feels home, safe, warm. You will get through were others could not… So yes, poke him." With the explanation Lara felt more confident. She took her finger and reached through the energy. If felt tingly, like the aftermath of a good electrical shock, and she shivered once in reaction before poking Harry gently in the shoulder. His head twitched on his shoulders, and he opened his mouth for a big yawn, settling down on the ground as he did so. As he opened his eyes his shield blinked out of existence.

"You know, Aunt Lara, I don't think I'll ever get the hang of meditating," he shrugged, sorry. "I think I fell asleep."

* * *

"If you cross me, we may not be able to remain friends…" Lara let her gaze drift down, then back up with a smirk. Alex was always ready for her. She was only going to make this harder on him… the pun was intended. She grabbed his face and kissed him, a hiss released from his lips as his hands gripped over her hips, pulling her toward him, mashing her breasts against his naked chest.

"Lara…" he was dizzy, she had that effect on him.

"Thank you," she muttered against his lips and backed away. He struggled for higher brain power as she started for the door.

"For what?" he asked, despite himself.

"Saving Harry, the way you did, though why you did is a discussion best left for when we're on the same side again." She sighed, in regret because he was one fine example of mankind, and then exited the apartment. With a heavy groan Alex looked down at himself.

"Now for a cold shower."

* * *

He was working on his gymnastic skills when Lara came home. Lithe as a monkey he jumped from topiary to topiary, and watched as she negligently parked in front of the huge main doors. She rarely used the front entrance to her own house; Harry got the feeling that it was significant somehow that she used it now.

"She's come home," he realized, and then nodded, satisfied that he'd figured it out. Then he did a handstand on the edge of the bush and flipped himself off and down, landing in a neat crouch. He contemplated how he was going to explain the trip he wanted to take to Lara, and tried to figure out reasonable reasons to let him go and all the reasons she would say he couldn't. Remus had already pointed out that he would probably break his own fool neck, but hadn't been able to retort when Harry pointed out that he could fall down the stairs tomorrow and achieve the same thing. Of course his guardian hadn't been at his best, recovering from a moon night drained him. Hilary had pointed out that he was too young to travel to Warsaw on his own, and pointed out the proximity of the demonstration to the next months full moon.

Lara was still away with the clock stuff, Hilary very rarely left the manor for something other than shopping, and Bryce was away with Lara, he'd never get to go unless Lara came home soon and approved. As he mused he flipped over fountains, tumbled around bushes, skid his worn tennis shoes down slick railings and rolled to his feet when he came up to the kitchen doorway.

"Hi Hilary! Lara's home!" he announced, though the butler undoubtedly knew that already. Snagging a warm snicker doodle that Hilary had just plated from the pan in his hand, Harry continued bouncing around the house. He jumped off couches and practiced landing with flexed knees, continuing to follow the movement into a forward roll or just picking himself back up and launching himself toward the next obstacle.

He screeched to a halt as Lara calmly paced down the front staircase in a pretty white dress and sun bonnet.

Hilary almost dropped the tray he was holding.

"Don't say a word," Lara warned as she passed them.

* * *

"It's like an extreme obstacle course," Harry was explaining to his aunt. He's watched her earlier battle with SIMON, and had to chuckle as Bryce started crying. He wasn't malicious, but Bryce's tears just made him want to dissolve into mad giggling. The man loved his robots, and took them, and himself, maybe just a little too seriously. Of course, he might cry as well if Lara had ripped his favorite plaything in half.

"That drop looks long," she commented, sweeping her wet braid behind her. She was relaxed, calm, and curious. The shower had settled her mind after her crying bout next to her father's headstone and the fight with SIMON. She felt like herself again, and the playground map Harry was showing her seemed like fun. "I thought Parkour couldn't be a competition, I thought they banned that."

"It's not a competition; they're doing an extreme demonstration. It's an abandoned military obstacle course that some guys have beefed up and started a skate park around. It started gaining in popularity and now they want to hold a free for all to find out the fastest and most creative way through it, anything goes, skating, biking, running... And they're going to be adding stuff before they start. Stuff that nobody gets a chance to practice or see beforehand."

"Sounds dangerous boyo," though in her head she was thinking it sounded like fun…

"So I was thinking that if we go together, 'cause they're letting in pairs, that we'll both get to go and the three man-nannies can't protest 'cause you'll protect me!"

Lara had to smirk; she raised one sweet talker, that was for sure. Bryce looked up to protest the man-nannie comment, but shrugged when he realized it was more or less true.

"Sounds like a plan to me Lara," he put in, knowing that with his support he'd make Harry smile. And there it was, that quick flash-grin that Remus had told him Harry's father had perfected while attending Hogwarts. And he'd earned Lara's patented "amused pursed lips" look. He just shrugged and linked his hands behind his head as he tipped his chair back with a side grin. He couldn't wait to watch the "demonstration".

* * *

The island was cold.

No, Lara thought, it's not the island…

Azkaban was cold. The building was frigid, the air inside of it was like breathing ice, even with several protective charms layered over her. Two burly wizards with stern faces and fisted hands followed her through the hallways, and stopped a bit before one of the cells.

2A, they'd said earlier. They refused to go any closer to the man who'd been madly giggling when they'd placed him there almost eight years ago. Though now, to Lara, it sounded more like he was sobbing. She walked forward and knelt next to the food slit, sliding it open carefully, ready for anything.

What she saw was a tall man, curled in on himself until he was so small that Lara couldn't figure out the dimensions.

"Mr. Black?" she asked softly.

"For pity's sake," the voice was cracked, dry, and nothing like the tone she'd imagined from Lily's letters. "Go away and leave my mind to rot. I deserve it."

"So you did betray the Potters?" Lara asked.

"How many times must I repeat myself?" Finally he began to uncurl and stretched carefully as he got to his feet. "I didn't tell Voldemort shit… but it's my fault anyway." His lower lip quivered as he battled with the emotions bubbling up in him. The Dementors would arrow in on anything but vicious self-loathing. But he had plenty of that to keep him relatively sane.

"I want the entire story. I want the truth, and I want it now," Lara didn't often play "lady of the manor", but she had a feeling that the harder she was the easier it would be to get the information she needed. Nothing had added up to her. The letters Lilly sent during her school years were, truthfully, full of nothing but the boys arrogance and attitudes, but she had reluctantly admitted that their loyalty to each other was one of the things that made her think twice about James. The young Sirius in her letters was fiercely protective of his friends, and when Harry had been born it was as if nothing else mattered to his godfather.

So no, nothing in the accusations of Sirius Black made sense.

"I've told the entire story before, you don't want the truth, you merely want gratification. So you can go back to your fancy house and tell the world that you spoke with Sirius Black… and he wasn't quite as insane as you thought he'd be. You know, that's what I get for aligning myself to the dark lord… though LeStrange a few cells down might argue with you, if he stops crying for a few moments." While he spoke Sirius uncurled himself and forced calm over himself. Living with his mother and her demands had taught him at a very young age how to fake any emotion, though his stomach protested bitterly as he stood up.

It was amazing, Lara thought, how long the man was. He approached the door, his head hung down and long dirty, clumped and stringy hair fell in front of his face, obscuring his features. His long, thin fingers curled around the bars in the window and he stepped closer, lifting his head until she could look into one clear blue eye.

"I believe I told you what I want, Black, and if you tell me true, I might be able to fix this mistake." She'd always trusted her gut. And as he tore apart the statement, aligning the meaning to her stubborn tone and stiff smile, she knew that he was innocent. His eyes were shimmering; he wanted to cry, because she sounded like she might actually believe him.

* * *

It was all Harry could do to stop fidgeting. Aunt Lara had told him that she had to go on a short side trip before heading toward the demonstration, and that she would only be gone for three days, but it was an hour before they had to leave for the airport and she still wasn't home yet. Worse yet, he hadn't been able to wheedle out where she had gone from anybody. Remus had been unusually tight-lipped, seeing as how he always made a lesson from where in the world Aunt Lara had gone, about cultures and stuff like that. But he'd snapped at Harry when he wouldn't stop poking about and trying to get Remus to tell him.

"For God's sake Harry!" he'd growled, and then pulled himself up stiffly to his full height. "You do not need to know," he cleared his throat then told Harry to do his homework in his room. He'd turned away, and slumped against the wall, looking out the front window as if waiting for Lara to return.

Now Harry was standing by that window, waiting anxiously. He didn't even really care where she had gone; now all he wanted was for her to be back.


	3. Chapter 3

disclaimer: i do not own laura croft or harry potter... damn.

* * *

"Where the hell are you?" Harry spoke calmly into the receiver. His finger was twitching against his pant leg, the only outward sign of his ire, but he figured the phone might crack in half with how tightly he was gripping it.

"Harry, you're too young for abandonment issues," Lara held back the tired sigh as she brushed her bangs away from her face. She was signing her name to the millionth document they'd placed in front of her, and swearing that when she was Queen of the World bureaucracy was the first thing she was going to abolish.

"I'm too young… well maybe I wouldn't have_ issues _as you put them, if you would bloody well show up when you're supposed to!"

"I'll meet you in Warsaw; Bryce is a perfectly fine guardian. I've already called the airport and arranged things."

"You're not yanking my chain?"

"I'll be there an hour after you land. Swear to whichever gods you'd like."

"You better be, or these abandonment issues you were talking about might rear up and-"

"Don't even finish that sentence young man, I don't want to hear it."

"Well I guess I'll see you in Warsaw then."

"Right, and Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Take care of Bryce, you know how he gets in airports."

"I'll steal his palm pilot until we're through security."

"That might be for the best."

"And I'll make sure that he doesn't have any mech parts in his bag."

"And remember the liquid limit."

"I'll dump his orange juice before the metal detectors."

"All right, did I forget anything?"

"Make sure he's not wearing his computerized tennis shoes."

"Right. If he must bring them, they have to stay in his check bag."

"Right. One hour?"

"I'll be there one hour after you. Promise."

* * *

They couldn't release him on her word. It took several hours of Lara out-stubborning the Warden before she could even get Sirius to a part of the Island that didn't have a Dementor influence. Heavily guarded and charmed to be impenetrable to the dark creatures, Sirius had finally stopped shivering. The Warden had heard that Sirius was not affected, or if he was it was a peculiar brand of lunacy, and was shocked to witness that after the first half hour Sirius was holding a very interesting conversation with Lara about what was going on in the world. Political, cultural, you name it, they touched on it. The only thing that was conspicuous in its absence was talk about The-Boy-Who-Lived, and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

When Madame Bones arrived with a pensieve Lara greeted her with a kiss to the cheek.

"Thank you for coming Amelia, I know it was hard for you to help me with this, I couldn't be more grateful."

"Lara, if you're wrong about this…" Susan shook her head, it had taken a long time, many talks, and a lot of blackmail before she could get anyone to admit that there hadn't been a trial… persay… in the strictest sense of the word…

"You know me," Lara smirked.

"Yes, I know, you're never wrong."

* * *

Harry was pacing up and down the concourse, every once in a while he'd stand on a chair and look around, then flop down and sigh. Bryce was watching him with wry amusement, whenever he looked up from his laptop.

"Seven more minutes before she's broken her word," he reminded the child. "She'll be here."

"She's never not told me what she was doing Bryce," Harry dug down to what was really bothering him. "Never."

"She didn't tell me either," the computer geek looked down at his screen and tutted in disappointment. He clicked a few keys and refrained from grinning manically. "She's down the hall, see?" he adjusted the screen so that Harry could look, and chuckled at the incredulous blinking that Harry was doing.

"You hacked into the airports security cameras?"

"Yep."

"You know they could arrest you for that."

"Uh-huh," Bryce closed down the programs and waited impatiently for the computer to shut off. "But they have to catch me first."

* * *

Harry had to roll his eyes. The short jokes were getting old, and most of them weren't even any good. Lara had gone off to sign them up, Bryce had spotted some snack shack and left to get them "munchies" as he'd put it, and some six foot whatever meat head was telling him that the course wasn't for kiddies.

"_You could skin your knee. They don't call time outs for crying to mommy you know."_ Harry understood that his Polish wasn't the best, but he was conversational enough in it to get pissed.

"_It's good you understand that going in, if you have any problems remembering that, I'll remind you."_ It wasn't the best retort he'd ever come up with, but it wasn't bad.

"Harry!" Lara called over to him, waving her hand to get his attention. Harry smirked at the meat-head and headed over to his aunt.

"What's up?"

"They want to see how high you can jump before they'll let you in. They want to make sure you can get over some of the walls," Lara scoffed and pointed at a seven foot wall behind the sign-up table. "If you can get over that they'll let you play."

"That's bull!" Harry protested, "they don't make anyone else pass a test!"

"_If you're scared, shorty…"_ the ass had followed him.

"_Bite me_," Harry replied before cracking his neck and letting out a puff of breath. In less than ten seconds he'd run up, jumped halfway, walked up a bit and grasped the ledge with the tips of his fingers, dangling with his shoelaces untied.

"_Ha!" _

"_Again, meat-for-brains, bite me." _With that muttered comment he pulled himself up into a handstand and twisted a bit to sit on top of it instead of just flipping over. _"Good enough for you?" _

* * *

He was still in a cell. But he was off the island. Sitting in the last holding cell at the Ministry of Magic, Sirius was finally going to have a trial. He was dressed in clean clothes, he'd been allowed a nice warm shower and a young woman had been in to cut his hair. The black mass curled to his shoulders, he liked the weight of it, the smell of it now that it was finally clean and not gnarled beyond recognition. It was his hair. Funny how something like that could make him feel human again.

* * *

Remus loved Wolfsbane potion. He could lock himself in his room and curl up on the window seat, and look up at the moon. His moon, the bane of his existence and the… entity, for lack of a better word, that controlled his body. He used to fear the moon, what it could do to him, what it turned him into.

Lara had changed that though. She'd brought him into their lives, her's, Harry's, Hillary and Bryce, and made him family. It had all happened so fast. Loosing his friends, all of his friends, in less than a week, and tumbling headfirst into this odd arrangement had made him dizzy.

Lara was like Lilly at her most stubborn, but she didn't seem to exude any effort as she pushed everyone around her until it was most convenient for her. And as he watched he realized that almost nobody realized they were being pushed. She somehow had arranged her life so that no one felt slighted or manipulated. She probably wasn't even aware of how hard people would work for her, because she worked herself harder than she ever expected from the rest of them. In fact, probably the only person to ever keep up with her had been Lilly. Lara loved to talk about Lilly, especially around Harry.

Harry knew all the story's by heart now, Remus was sure, there were only a few of them but they were packed. By the time Harry was four he'd started clamouring for more story's of his da, and Remus was more than happy to oblige. But he didn't mention the transformations he would go through, he managed to keep it away from Harry, terrified that the adventurous boy might take it into his head to explore, thinking it wasn't a big deal after all, it's only Remus.

But Remus wasn't Remus on a full moon night. Even with the Wolfsbane potion he wasn't entirely himself, just more conscious of the fact that he wasn't "Wolf". So he would lock the doors in his suite of rooms every full moon, and told Harry that he was just doing boring paperwork, so he should play with Bryce, or help Hilary with dinner and baking cookies, or maybe a training romp with Lara around the grounds before bedtime, I'll see you in the morning. Then, in the morning, he would force himself to appear normal, unaware of how observant young Harry was growing. Of course, he had only himself to blame.

He taught Harry to read as soon as possible and had him reading at a third grade level before nursery school. He taught Harry theory behind magic, as Harry's magical core was still too unstable at his young age to teach him actual spells. He had Harry look up just about everything instead of just telling him the answers, making games out of finding just the right information.

These were right up there with Hogwarts when comparing the happiest time of his life, the only black marks being the deaths of his friends, and the fear the moon still held over him. And Lara was growing impatient with him.

He hadn't known, at first, that Harry was sitting outside the library, listening in on his and Lara's argument. They took pains to never fight in front of him, but that didn't mean they didn't disagree on some things. Remus's lycanthropy being a major issue.

Remus stared up at the moon and remembered the argument that had finally broken that wall.

He'd been depressed, often was before a moon day, and had started a fight with Lara in the library. A few minutes into it he mumbled something about just packing up and leaving them safe when Lara had shoved him into the library chair and crossed her arms with that stubborn scowl on her face. He'd been so fused on his indignation at that point he was shocked he'd recognized the muffled gasp in the hallway. Harry had been curled against the door, his arms around his knees, the five year old crying helplessly into his pants.

"_Remus's hurt!" he tried to explain through little gasps of breath and whimpers. "I-I- tried! I couldn't… find anything! And you-you…" he wiped the tears away with the backs of his hands, but that didn't stop new ones from forming and dropping onto chubby little cheeks, green eyes shining brilliantly against the sunlight pouring into the window. _

"_Harry?" Remus knelt down._

"_You can't leave!" he protested and flung his arms around Remus's neck, so tightly that he couldn't be pried away. _

"_Harry, I could hurt you… I wouldn't mean to, but it could…"_

"_I don't care! I don't want you to go! You hafta stay! You promised!" Harry curled his fingers into the neck of Remus's shirt and buried his face in his uncle's neck. _

"_You did promise," Lara reminded him. "You told him that you'd never leave him."_

"_It's for his own good," he sighed as he tried to pry Harry off his lap. "He doesn't understand, he doesn't really know…"_

"_You're a werewolf." Harry stated, pulling back and looking calmly into his eyes. "I looked it up." _

"_And I don't see how leaving now is going to "save" him from you," Lara scoffed. "At this point it's called abandonment." _

_Remus scowled at her, but held Harry tightly. "Yes Harry, I'm a werewolf. You did a good job on the research."_

"_But a lot of it is stupid!" Harry protested, well aware of the fact that some books were biased. Remus had to explain to him why some books contradicted others, and luckily Harry was intelligent enough to form his own opinion from observation. "You would never hurt me!"_

_It was pure shock that made Remus close his mouth._

"_Out of the mouth of babes," Lara could only chuckle at the incredulous anxiety that shifted over Remus's face. After all, he locked himself up at every moon, was extra careful to make sure that the walls and doors were magically shielded so there was no way he could break free, he personally picked up silver shot gun shells and pressed them into Lara's hand for any just-in-case emergency. He was so overly precautious he gave paranoid schizophrenics a bad name. _

Remus had to admit, they had him beat. Now, almost five years after that argument he was still sitting in the window seat, waiting out the moon. Only now he had something else to worry about.

Sirius.

He suspected that Lara was behind the owl letter he'd received the other day. He had been so shocked he hadn't known what to tell Harry about what his aunt was doing. It was unheard of for a prisoner of Azkaban to get an appeal, but then of course you'd have to have a trial first before getting an appeal. He didn't know that Sirius hadn't had a trial; he just thought that they wouldn't call in a werewolf as a character witness. He'd been more than shocked at the scorn the lawyer had included in the letter. Apparently he was very miffed that his client hadn't been properly able to defend himself. Of course, at the time Sirius had been a little bit more than insane. He hadn't stopped laughing for almost a month, and by that time he was already in Azkaban. He'd trusted Albus when he'd told Remus that Sirius was guilty.

He should have pushed. He should have questioned, like he had ever since Laura started wondering about it. The werewolf scratched behind his ear with his hind paw and stretched out with a large yawn. _Life is too complicated, _he complained to himself_, just look up at that beautiful moon and relax. You'll get your answers soon enough_.

With a sigh he settled back down and looked up at the glowing orb. No, he wasn't afraid of the moon anymore. He wondered what it was he was afraid of. What would his boggart be now?

i had the hardest time this chapter remembering that Lara isn't spelled with a "u". if i missed one, let me know, huh?


	4. Chapter 4

I don't know how well I got my vision down, I'm hoping that you'll at least get some sort of visual from reading this chapter. It kind of flings from happy to kinda depressing, but I really think it works well as a chapter. If you have any questions, or are confused about the breaks then put it in a review and i'll get back to you. I like expanding on ideas, so I don't mind replying. I just don't think that authors notes are the right place to explain, because someone might get what others don't and if I try to explain here i'll just piss some people off while confusing others. anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I do not own Harry Potter or Lara Croft.

* * *

Harry loved Parkour. The physical act of running, leaping, twisting, twirling his body in never ending combinations, was like flying. Harry loved flying. He remembered watching Lara train in her backyard, watching Remus fly around on his broomstick when he thought no one else was around.

They would just loose themselves in the act, and it was like there was no one else in the world. As he grew he began to imitate them, going so far as to "borrow" Remus's broom, flipping and twirling around the backyard obstacles as lithe as a monkey.

Standing, now, at the top of the concrete jungle, Harry took a deep breath and let it out in pure satisfaction. A new playground, a new challenge, waited.

He looked up as Lara joined him, her shadow temporarily covering his smaller body.

"How do you want to do this?" she asked, her hand now scuffling his unruly mop of hair.

"We could just fly through it," He referred to her ability to launch him over taller obstacles, and then having him haul her up with him. When Harry was in the air, he felt weightless, and he was positive his magic helped him to hover, just a bit. Remus was a little more skeptical at that, but did allow that his father had always had an uncanny ability to stay atop his broom even when it looked like he'd fall to a nasty end.

"We could," she agreed, then pointed down at a rope course. "Those look like marine training grounds." Harry agreed, having met some of her marine friends. They were tough guys, and their obstacle course had looked tough. They wouldn't let him use it, he was only seven when he met them, and considerably smaller than they were. Seeing the rope course now he was filled with an immediate need to try it out.

"I think we should just take each part as it comes. No preconceived plans. We can throw ourselves around and help each other only when we need it. Sounds good?" Harry could already see some blocks he'd need help over, and he knew Lara did too. But some of the smaller spaces looked to have easier access to points that he knew Lara might have a hard time squeezing through. If he could get ahead and climb up the narrower areas, and then grab her hand as she jumped, they'd have enough leverage to get around.

"You two ready?" A tall and extrememly lanky young man, who had introduced himself as Gorilla earlier, jogged to the top of the hill they were on and looked down at his stop watch. "The last team got through in twenty seven minutes. Did some pretty sweet kong vaults. But I gotta say, I can't wait to watch you two." His crew cut was so blond it almost looked like he was bald under the strong sun, his smile was crooked, but his bright blue eyes shone with good cheer. "I mean, we set up the course cause local people were getting on our case about jumping around the neighborhoods and stuff, so all the publicity we're getting on this is good. And having you guys shows that this isn't just a sport for twenty-something year old guys." He shrugged as Lara just quirked an eyebrow.

"I can't wait," Harry jumped a bit, antsy and ready to go with the flow. He grinned when the cell phone on the guys belt rang.

"No need to bro, go ahead," he waved them off, and whistled as they skid down the hill and muscled up the first wall, going into handstands and then vaulting down the other side in a perfectly synchronized movement. He grinned as Harry ran to the opposite wall, kicked off and then landed in Lara's cupped hands. He flew over the next wall as she launched him high, then he reached down as she ran up the wall and he grabbed her hand to pull her over. They decimated the course, flipping, vaulting, rolling, swinging…

Gorilla watched as they started the rope course, and laughed out loud in glee as Lara grabbed her nephews hand in one of her own and just swung him up to the next net. Harry landed in the net with enough momentum to simply bounce to the wall. His hands grabbed the edge and he executed a perfect 360 rotation, sitting down on the thin ledge as he watched his aunt flip herself up to the net and bounce much as he did, though she landed on the ledge with a cat-like grace that had most of the watchers glowing green in envy. Harry got to his feet on the narrow ledge and followed Lara, smirking as she turned around and walked backwards, watching him, and stayed completely on balance. At the end she flipped off, down into a flat ditch, and waited again for his foot in her hands. She launched him back up so that he could go from the first ledge to the wall opposite, then she jumped up and pulled herself on top the same wall. This time with Harry in the lead, they ran across the wall and were grinning fiercely at the next dip.

Gorilla didn't realize he was holding his breath until they landed safety. They'd just run off the second story ledge, launching themselves like Olympic divers and then somehow twisted their bodies into a forward roll that he would have sworn would leave anybody else with a severe case of road rash.

Harry just picked himself up with his usual aplomb and laughed as Lara messed up his hair, still running the course with a wicked glee.

* * *

_They watched the scenes with heavy weights at the bottoms of their stomachs. The empty apartment, the hollow gut of the man who flew through the air, refusing the panic that clawed inside. They felt the horror, the absolute death of hope as the man landed in the midst of rubble, then the tiny sliver of shock as he heard the wailing. The shadow that enveloped the tiny baby refused to give the prize to the man, told him that he had his orders, to protect the child, and as the man gave up the only thing that was keeping the insanity at bay, he turned to ice inside. The baby was now flying away with the shadow, and the rat had to pay._

* * *

Gorilla was right, watching those two had been a treat, and the laughter in the kids eyes had been a tickle in the gut to those who truly loved free running, parkour, and any other permutation of the sport. They kicked off the grand opening of their obstacle course with a true bang, and all those who ran through were invited to the barbeque later that night. There was a group around the kid, wanting mostly to bask in his true enjoyment, reminding themselves how much they loved what it was they did. And of course, there was a group around his aunt. Damn but she was fine, and she knew it, flirting gently, teasing so that no one felt left out. And that guy that they brought with them, Gorilla laughed, was showing everybody replays of their best moments. Somehow the guy had gotten camera's set up all over the damn place.

As the night wore down and people started shipping out, Gorilla smirked as he found Harry dead asleep, nested on one of the guys sweatshirts, his tennis shoes untied and almost hanging off his feet. He settled down, sitting near Harry's head, his own hands clasped loosely around bent legs, his cheek settled on his knee, just watching the little guy with the bonfire's light flickering on his face.

"Tired himself out huh?" Lara chuckled as she sat on the other side of her nephew.

"Looks like." Gorilla nodded, "the guys really liked him."

"Well he really like them," Bryce clicked close his recorder and settled the bag of reclaimed cameras next to his foot. "Hope you don't mind, but I can clean up these images, send you something to post on your website?"

"That would be more than welcome, you caught some gnarly angles."

"Thanks, just keeping myself entertained, but wow did you get some great players here."

"That was the point; show everyone what can be done here, how the same obstacles could be passed in different ways. Now hopefully we'll get more interest and people can start building parks like this. Keep a safe place for future runners to practice besides the streets. It's harder to get hit by cars when you don't have a freeway running through your park. You know?"

"Yeah," Lara ruffled Harry's hair as the boy turned over and yawned.

"We gon home?" Harry asked with a wide open mouth.

"Soon," Lara promised.

"Moony's mad a me," Harry said, still half asleep.

"Why's that?" Lara asked, well aware that Harry really wasn't thinking about what was coming out of his mouth.

"don know, bu his wolf was aw growly before we lef," he slurred.

"Wolf?" Gorilla asked as Lara chuckled.

"That's what we call his uncles bad mood," she groaned as she got to her feet and then leaned down to scoop Harry into her arms. "You're getting too big for this kiddo," then chuckled when one of his tennis shoes plopped to the ground.

"Here, let me," Gorilla scooted over and tied the shoe still on Harry's foot, then slipped the fallen one on and tied it securely in place.

"Thank you."

"No problem, thank you both for coming," he turned to Bryce. "All of you, and here," he pulled a card from his pocket and scribbled his e-mail on the back, handing it to Bryce. "Just send me that video when you're done, we'll load it up." The front of the card had a stylized man vaulting over a car the long way and the words "_Parkour du Combattant"._

"We enjoyed ourselves greatly, thank you for the wonderful day," Lara held out a hand, balancing Harry carefully, and was amused when Gorilla bent to kiss the back of it.

"Hopefully we'll see you around." He smiled, and waved as they walked away.

* * *

_There were no screams at first. It wasn't an attack at first, but a desperate plea for an explanation. The hissed anger and hatred that erupted from the rat's thin lips froze him in space, just time enough for the louder accusation, then the quick draw of a wand. The one and only time the fat little traitor had bested him was the one time when it actually mattered. He couldn't help himself as he spied the bloody stump of a finger, he couldn't stop the laughter._

_Even when they came and screamed at him, the hatred of people who had no clue what he'd just lost. They had no clue just what his own cleverness had done to him, had done to the only people he'd ever loved._

_It was his fault._

_But he just could stop laughing._

_If he stopped laughing, he'd just die._

* * *

Remus was sitting in the library, the window open, a fire crackling lightly in the fireplace. If anyone wanted to contact him, they had open access to do so. He wasn't even pretending to read the heavy book that lay open on his knee. He didn't even turn his head when the telephone rang and Hilary answered it with a quiet murmur.

"The plane just landed, Lara and the boys will be back soon," his voice was even as always, but Remus just wasn't listening. Normally he'd be jumping at the chance to meet them at the airport, but he couldn't leave. What if he tried to contact him and he wasn't there?

"Remus," Hilary laid his hand on the younger mans shoulder. He waited for those amber eyes to look up. "I'm going to make some tea, and I'll bring some in for you. And you will drink it."

Remus blinked, then let out a deep breath, "Yes, thank you Hilary."

The butler allowed a fleeting smile, and left the room quietly, leaving the door open just in case.

"Ahem," the voice was not the one Remus was expecting, he jumped in his armchair, startled. Then he composed himself and knelt at the fireplace, recognizing the face in the flames as Stephanie Blackwell, the lawyers secretary. "Sorry Mr. Lupin, I didn't mean to frighten you." The chagrined twist of her lips was cute, but Remus really wasn't paying attention.

"That's quite all right Miss. Blackwell, you have news?" He tried to act as if he hadn't been going quietly insane for the past week.

"The court just released session," she nodded. "He's been absolved of all charges."

"All…" Remus bit his lip as every mixed up emotion he'd been pushing back threatened to break through the wall. "All charges?"

"Yes, there's some paperwork and much debate about reparations that still have to be discussed, there is his inheritance that's been left in limbo and needs to be resolved…" she trailed off as she noticed that he hadn't been listening to her at all. Then she laughed out loud as Remus was forcefully pulled from the fireplace and she heard the frightened screaming of the muggle on the other end…

Apparently Remus had forgotten to tell Hilary about the Floo connection.


	5. Chapter 5

It was dark. Clouds covered the moon, the stars, shadows were forgotten, there was only an inky black stain over his eyes. It coated everything in darkness. The roof in one corner was destroyed, bits of tile and jagged wood littered the ground still, a horrific reminder of what once was.

They'd kept him locked up for a while, even after they declared him innocent of the crimes held against him. They kept him in the small cell, fed well, clean and empty of blame. But he'd been insane when they hauled him from his cubs side, insane and just a bit suicidal. They had to make sure he wasn't anymore.

So they made him talk. Talk to professionals, talk to people who "understood what he'd been through" and would "help him integrate back into society." He'd spoken to his old bosses, very briefly, who'd told him that until a full evaluation could be done, until he'd been trained back up, he couldn't come back to work.

It wasn't that he minded. His mother had died while he'd "been away", so he'd come into his inheritance. It turns out that burning a name off a tapestry didn't count in terms of blood relations. Besides, after being thrown into jail with his cousins it turns out his mother had welcomed him back into the fold.

So he didn't need to work. He shivered as he wrapped the coat tighter around his skinny frame. They'd fed him so much, but he truly couldn't keep much down. He'd have to be careful, rich foods did not agree with his delicate stomach any longer. He scoffed. Delicate indeed.

"It all changed that night," the voice was soft; he didn't bother to turn around.

"Yes," his own voice still sounded wrong in his ears. Scratched, tired from the screams that haunted his dreams, dry, crumbled to dust.

"I understand why you didn't tell me," the voice was closer, warmer with the implied forgiveness.

"Do you?" he asked, not quite sure that the smaller man did.

"Sirius," the small rebuke had him curling in on himself as the clouds shifted away from the moon. It was only in a crescent, but it was enough light for them to look each other in the eye.

"I'm so sorry Moony," the tears threatened, but he held them back. He needed to see the absolution, he needed the forgiveness or he was sure he'd just crack.

Remus walked up to his old friend, outside of the ruined house that had been like home to them both, and brought the shaking man into a careful embrace. Sirius let his head drop to Remus's shoulder, and the tears drop from his eyes.

* * *

no more for tonight... this needs to stand alone.


	6. Chapter 6

Over double my last word count for this story... but still pretty short. I'm uploading this at 4am, and I have to work at 8:30... so huzzah. Anyway, this is what gets stuck in my head when I'm in the middle of a late night shower. I knew I had to write it down or forget it, so it's all your fault that I'm sleep deprived tonight... although the 12 hours of sleep I got last night might also have something to do with it. Anyway, enjoy!

Tomb Raider and Harry Potter do not belong to me.

* * *

"Aunt Lara?" Harry was visible from the library door as nothing more than a round face with a serious grimace. Instantly Lara knew she was going to regret this conversation.

"Yes Harry?" she indicated her interest by snapping closed the book she was reading and placing it back on the shelf. She indicated the two chairs in front of the cold fireplace and sat in one as if she had no cares in the world but for what he needed. It was an attitude that instantly put Harry on edge, Lara was never as accommodating as she was for him, but she had limits even for Harry. He knew she was researching a terrific find, and that somehow he managed to put her back up…

He cursed himself, he shouldn't have indicated that he had anything to hide, though the warm sensation under his jacket arm said otherwise.

"You have time for a few questions?" he asked as he sat opposite her and carefully placed both hands in his lap.

"Of course, dear, now what ever is the problem?"

Damn, she was being polite. He was in trouble, and she didn't even know what she was going to punish him for yet.

"I don't want you to freak out… or tell Remus about this… yet." Harry couldn't look his aunt in the eye; he was basically being as evasive as he could be. Remus had told Lara that most wizarding children (instinctively) would not look into their parents eyes while lying, evading, or being duplicitous in any way. It was a hold over from earlier days when parents could suss out the truth by a talent called oclumency, the real secrets of which had been lost through time. Though, he admitted, a few particular people seemed to have a handle on it and its converse effects.

"What is wrong Harry? I've never known you to keep things from Remus before," Lara worried. Harry was rarely secretive, preferring to get approval on his insane feats instead of a scolding. Also, he reasoned once, if he got hurt doing something Remus could patch him up right away!

"Well, he's keeping things from me…" Harry muttered, leaving unsaid that Lara was as well. They didn't talk about it, but Remus was no longer spending his moon days at the mansion, and Lara knew why.

"Harry…" Lara hesitated, still unsure as to why Remus was still being so secretive about Sirius. It had been five months now, and still no sign of the liberated wizard. She supposed they had a lot to talk over, but it was getting ridiculous.

"Never mind, listen, I just wanted permission for an aquarium in my room," Harry got out quickly, once again shifting a bit uncomfortably as something tickled his wrist under his jacket.

"Harry…" Lara smirked. "What have you got under there?"

Harry looked away, his eyes a bit wide. "What do you mean? Under where?"

"Just show me, and we'll talk about it," Lara almost let loose a peel of relieved giggles. She stopped herself before the indignity could occur, but it was close. All Harry wanted to do was keep a frog or something! She remembered the "pet" worm she tried to keep in a jar next to her bed when she was seven. She forgot to poke air holes in it.

Harry sighed and stood carefully, pulling the jacket off and sheepishly shrugged when her breath caught in her throat.

Carefully curled around Harry's arm was a thick black snake! Wound around Harry's arm like it was, it was difficult to determine length, but Lara estimated a good 40-50 cm. It lazily lifted its head, hissed something, and laid its head back down on Harry's wrist. Harry scoffed a bit and stroked the scales from the slightly raised snout ridge, between its eyes, and back down its spinal dorsal scales.

"Harry, that's an adder, they are poisonous," Lara said as if speaking to a deficient child, which she knew her small cousin was not.

"I know," Harry replied easily. "I looked it up."

"Harry, how long has that been on your person?"

"A few hours, she likes me, she likes that I'm warm." He grinned and continued petting the dangerous thing. "I researched Aunt Lara, in the past hundred years only 14 bites have been fatal, out of tens of thousands. She won't hurt me, I promise. All I want is an aquarium for her."

"All you want is an aquarium?" Lara stood carefully, no sudden movements, though the snake still tracked her movement with a swinging head.

"Yes." Harry smiled charmingly, prepared to lay it on thick, when the snake hissed something. Momentarily distracted, Harry hissed back. The snake, amazingly, seemed to take his word for it and lay back down on his wrist. He looked back up at Lara and noted the frozen shock on her features. He grimaced as if he'd been caught flooding the kitchen with the garden hose again.

"She says that the library stinks of werewolf," Harry shrugged. "I told her that's because a werewolf lives here. She seemed to be okay with it."

"She says?"

"I found her in the garden, I almost stepped on her and she swore at me like a New York cabbie." Harry smiled; he had some new insults for Neville the next time he visited. "We had a lovely conversation," he continued a bit mockingly. "And I asked if she'd like to hang around for a bit so that we could learn more about our amazing ability to transcend the language barriers!"

"Stop being a smart ass," Lara snapped. Harry blushed a bit, but didn't back down.

"Please?" He so rarely asked for anything, Lara sighed, if he really wanted to keep a pet snake then so be it.

"She'll stay in her aquarium?"

"Yes," Harry smiled, aware that he'd won.

"I don't want her slithering around the house and scaring Hilary to death. The poor man hates snakes." She shouted after Harry as the boy started to leave the library.

"That's fine Aunt Lara!" He exclaimed as he waved to someone out in the hallway. Bryce passed by Lara's line of sight as he followed Harry down the hall. The skinny tech was carrying a large glass aquarium. Lara snickered; obviously Harry was planning on winning the argument. Though the parting shot reiterated her initial trepidation, "She doesn't want to move much anyway until the baby's are born!"

"Babys?" She rushed to the door and shouted at Harry's back.

"Nu-uh! You said yes! You can't take it back!" Harry shot back as he rounded the corner, Bryce close behind him. When no other protest came she heard an inspired evil chuckle echoing down the hallway.

Sighing she leaned back against the door jamb. "He's going to be the death of me yet," she muttered. "I just know it."

* * *

I looked up the information on adders on wikipedia... en./ wiki/ Viperaberus#Description (take out spaces), and just so you know I'm thinking this is set in late October... I looked back over my story and I couldn't see that I put a time line anywhere. So now, if you can find something I missed I'd be grateful, but I'm saying it's October and Harry is nine. I'm going to start introducing more Wizards soon, Harry really hasn't had alot of interaction with various Wizards, except for Remus who is a constant. I'm thinking that Mrs. Longbottom has kept in touch, but Dumbledoor and his crew would still stay behind the scenes until Hogwarts... and I have some odd views on whats going to change and what is going to stay the same in first year!

Also, my friend just told me that some things were off... I skipped Harry's birthday, apparently that's a sin. I didn't include it because, to me, it doesn't matter what he got for his ninth birthday. He grew up in a loving home, he got presents; he can't remember never getting presents because he was only in Petunia's care for a week, tops. Also, it's boring to me to figure out what he would get. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I can't remember what I got for my ninth birthday, neither will Harry in a few years. Harry calls the glass case an aquarium because that's what it was last used for. A terrerium is for spiders, and I don't know what else to call it because I'm tired. And yes, I use a few big words, mostly when writing Lara or Remus. I do this because they are intellegent people and they think in those words. Pay attention, I use smaller words for Harry because he's not a walking dictionary, yet. Wait until he meets Hermione!! Until next time! Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

5 pages instead of 2, like last time. I've listened to your complaints and have delivered a longer chapter... though this one kicked my ass! I waffled alot, and must warn you, this chapter is heavy on introspection. It explains alot of things, also it reveals what Harry is going to do come Hogwarts time. It's basically what my dad said to me about College. Basically, but you'll see what I mean. (2,500 words)

anyway, hope you enjoy, Harry Potter and Tomb Raider do not belong to me, but I'm having fun twisting their realitys!

* * *

He felt like a bloody stalker.

Every time Harry would come into view his heart would race, the teacup he held would clatter gently on the lip of its plate. The woman eyeing him with clear reserve only reinforced that feeling.

Lara could only hope that this reunion was a happy one. She sighed as she glanced at the clock on the mantle, then back out the window. Harry was jumping around, dragging Neville from one side of the yard to the other. Neville, for the most part, was allowing Harry his enthusiasm by playing a meek game of follow the leader. Where Harry leaped atop topiaries and scampered across fences, Neville dogged his steps on the relative safety of the grass next to the enthusiastic boy's obstacles. Occasionally the elder of the duo (by one day), Neville, would stop and say something to Harry, which would make Harry laugh so hard he would almost loose his balance.

It was something of a game to them, which they'd been doing ever since they could remember.

Harry, as a toddler, had been prone to great feats of escapism. If Lara put him in his crib, an hour later he'd be in the kitchen, library, or one of any of the rooms in the grandiose mansion whose door had been left open. The first time Neville came for a visit was the first time Harry had stayed where he'd been put.

Lara and Mrs. Longbottom, as she still preferred to be called, put the boys down for their naps in Harry's crib. Two hours later, with not a peep being heard from them, Lara had gotten curious. She peaked her head in and after a few minutes had to duck into the hallway to allow the laughter to escape.

Harry tried to climb out of the crib. Neville pulled him back down, frowned, and shook his head. From the delighted look on Harry's face, this had been happening for a while, and he could get something else from Neville for obeying. So Harry sat down, facing Neville, and patted the older boy's nose.

Neville, an old hat at this game by now, frowned and then burped. Harry giggled and clapped his hands as bubbles emerged from Neville's mouth. He then spent the next five minutes popping the bubbles. Thus began Neville's famous attempts at distracting Harry Potter.

At the moment it seemed that Neville was rolling out his joke repertoire. Obviously it was enough to keep Harry in stitches, but Lara had to wonder how appropriate the jokes were. Harry had outgrown knock-knock jokes rather early. She shook her head to get rid of the cobwebs, and once again studied the tall, skinny man at the window.

Sirius Black looked far better than he had the last she'd seen him. His jet black hair was cut, swept away from his angular face, just brushing the tops of his shoulders. He had a few striking chunks of gray at his temples that actually looked more silver as the light hit right. His eyes were carefully wary, but not shackled, hidden away. He looked a little sad, and still a little thin for the clothing he wore. Though it was of good material, blue silk top and sturdy black trousers, they still hung a bit on his lanky frame. He was obviously building himself back up, but Lara wondered if he'd ever reach the well built and happy man in her nephew's photo album.

Remus watched both of them, well aware that next to Harry, these two were the most important people in his life. What happened this afternoon could build or break. He wasn't quite sure how to handle either side. He took a sip of tea, noted that Sirius should probably set his down before the cup broke, and turned to speak to Neville's grandmother.

Mrs. Longbottom had almost hexed Sirius as she walked into the library, then settled down with a stiff apology after recalling the Daily Prophet articles about his wrongful arrest. She'd settled down to chat with Remus, which she always enjoyed because, werewolf or not, he kept up with current issues and concerns. She was delighted that a man so many years her junior held so many of her views in the same light. She didn't get much time to chat, though, her many interests and taking care of her sons in his absence didn't give her much time to be anything but the stern matriarchal head of the Longbottom family.

She heard laughter through the window Sirius had just pushed a bit open, and smiled herself. Neville's other relatives had been merciless in trying to get the boy to spontaneously explode magic. It hadn't worked well, and she hadn't been able to get to the boy before his Uncle Algie threw him out an open third story window. When Neville bounced he congratulated himself, but then turned beet red as Neville whipped around and started swearing, lightning crackling around his palms as he forced his temper down. Augusta had been forced to temp down her own outrage and explain that Neville had been taking some classes and had a fine control of his own magic, which was the reason he never exhibited accidental magic at family gatherings.

She had Remus to thank for that, of course. Now that the boys were nearing Hogwarts age, her grandson was most likely to take to the school environment rather well, having Remus tutor him like an actual Hogwarts teacher would. In fact, the leaps that both boys had taken, before even getting their wands, had shocked her the first time she'd seen them bicker.

They were about six years old, Harry had said something insensitive, and Neville had encased the boy in a clear bubble. The outrage that Harry had felt had chilled the room, but Neville just shrugged and indicated that if Harry was at all sorry about what he'd said, the bubble would pop on it's own. Apparently it was a trick that Remus had used on Sirius quite often in their first Hogwarts years, until Sirius got better at realizing tact might be useful in some situations.

Augusta could not congratulate herself anymore at hiring Remus Lupin as a tutor if her life depended on it. Neville might be shy, not very outspoken, but he was confident in himself, and that could only help him later in life.

Of course the wicked laughter might have to be calmed a bit, she smirked as the rolling laughter outside became somewhat fiendish. The boys must be planning a prank. She was somewhat surprised when the almost anxious look on Black's face softened a bit. He was probably remembering his own maniacal laughter at pranks pulled years ago.

"Well, Lara darling, as wonderful as tea has been, I do have many things to do. Thank you for looking after Neville tonight." Augusta got to her feet and wrapped her long green coat around her shoulders, thanking Remus as he fetched her scarf and feathered hat.

"It's always a pleasure Mrs. Longbottom," Lara replied, kissing the woman's cheek. "Neville's welcome for the entire weekend if you find yourself needing a bit more time to yourself, of course."

"Thank you Lara, I just might take you up on that offer." She kissed Remus's cheek then turned to Sirius, who was watching them carefully. "Mr. Black, I hope your reunion goes well." With a stiff nod, she was away.

* * *

"What's going on?" Harry asked as Remus took Neville away for a little tutor/student chat. Lara, never one to evade an issue, pulled him to a stop outside the library.

"I know that Remus has told you a lot about your father, you know about the night Voldemort came for you, and I know that you have a lot of questions that I can't answer because I don't know." Her expression was stone, solemn but steady. Harry could almost hear the heartbeat in his chest, feel the thump, thump, as it pounded against his ribcage.

"Remus and I felt it was time, maybe past time, to fix that situation. You're a very intelligent person Harry, and I wanted to make sure you knew as much as possible before you go to Hogwarts…" she held up a hand to forestall Harry's protest. They'd gone over it many times. Harry didn't want to leave his muggle school; he didn't see any use for magic beyond the simple spells Remus had tutored him in. Everything he thought about the magical world was slightly skewed, Lara knew, from reading the Daily Prophet and then having Remus correct the articles. He didn't know how such a backwards society had managed to keep itself secret. Logic didn't seem to be a major component.

They'd fought until they were both blue in the face, but Lara was insistent. He'd go for the first year, and if he still hated it, she'd look into tutors. But he would know as much as he possibly could about using his gift. That was not an option.

She wondered, briefly, what he would be like had Sirius had the chance to introduce him into Pure Blood Society. Remus couldn't get close, and as much as Mrs. Longbottom might be willing to try, their social standing as related to each other meant nothing in the long run. It wasn't appropriate, apparently, for the mother of her nephews godmother to introduce him into a greater social standing that should have been his as inherited from his father. Lara had no clue as to why, but then again, she didn't really care either. Her own social standing was a pain in her ass, and she only used it when she needed to call in a favor from one of her fathers friends. As "Lady Croft" she often scoffed at the title, unless it could do something for her.

So it possibly was her fault that Harry found himself so blasé about his own possible power in wizarding society besides the whole, "Boy-Who-Lived" thing, which he felt was ridiculous.

But now… now he was going to take a step that she couldn't help with, and was anything other than nonchalant about. He was going to exit from the library a completely different person from the boy who stepped in.

With that thought she pulled him into a hug. Normally he'd squirm a bit, protest that he was too old for a squish hug, but this time he relaxed into her arms. Like maybe he needed that reassurance just as much as she did.  
"Aunt Lara?" he asked against her shoulder, quietly, almost hesitant.

"Yes Harry?"

"Who's in the library?" his arms, if anything, got tighter around her waist. Lara's hand went to his hair, brushing it back from his forehead as she leaned over to kiss his scar, gently. He hissed a bit as he inhaled, looked up into her eyes.

"Sirius Black," Lara replied, then smirked a bit at his confusion. Remus always referred to him as Padfoot, so Harry wouldn't know. "Your godfather."

* * *

The light was low. A fire burning cheerfully in the fireplace, a few candles lit here and there, and two wing backed chairs had been pulled into the cozy nook to take every advantage of the flickering flames. All Harry could see, as he closed the door softly, were two long legs sticking out from the chair, and a thin, blue clad arm, draped negligently on the arm rest. It could have been something from a horror movie, Harry considered, if he hadn't known the library so well, if his aunt wasn't just outside the door, if he wasn't so frightfully curious. So he took a breath and moved forward, skirting around the second chair and carefully sitting without looking at the man in the first.

Instead he stared at the fireplace, and felt his godfather's eyes on him for the first time he could remember. He supposed that this man had known him as a baby, and all Remus had said was that Padfoot had to go away. He never went into details, and Harry was left with the uncomfortable feeling that something had been drastically wrong; something had forced the man to leave.

He never really thought about it, he had Lara, and Hilary, and Bryce and Remus around… what use would a godfather be? But he was aware that something was missing. He always attributed it to his parents. But he sat down, looked at the flames, and something inside of him clicked. It was like his magic suddenly relaxed, like it said, "oh, there you are, it's about damned time."

"Hello Cub," the voice was a whisper almost, hesitant and wrong with it. Harry looked up in surprise, in knowing something like that from two such normal words. His eyes flashed in the firelight, meeting gray clouds that seemed to negate such passion as a fire. There was something wrong; Harry could feel it, something that just wasn't right with the man.

Before he knew what it was he was doing he stood, walked over to the man, and sat down next to him in his big wing backed chair

"Well move over you bloody pillock," came out of his mouth. "My ass isn't that tiny!"

There was a pause, almost as if time stood still for just a second, then Sirius Black scooted his butt over, giving Harry more room. His long, spindly arm curled around the boy's shoulders and pulled him closer, and the tears that were spilling from his eyes dropped onto Harry's cheek.

"I missed you so much, so very much." the whisper was desperate, painful.

"Then why'd you leave me?" Harry asked the one question that was on his mind, all the time it seemed.

"Damn," Sirius chuckled bitterly. "Just like your mother, easy questions later, and hard, painful ones first."

"Well?" Harry insisted as he laid his head down on the bony shoulder, "And why are you so skinny? You didn't look like this in your school pictures."

"It kind of all ties in together, Cub, how about I tell you a story?"

"Is there a dragon in it?" he asked impishly. Sirius caught his breath before laughing the question off. His stories, made up and otherwise, to Harry as a child always had dragons. He would hold Harry above his head and swing the toddler around, Harry was a dragon.

Lily would scold him, saying Harry was supposed to be put down for a nap, not riled up before one.

"Would you like a dragon? I can squeeze one in if it'll help."

"Would it help?" Harry asked, frighteningly insightful.

"No." Sirius replied with a wistful sigh, settling his chin against the top of the boy's head. "It wouldn't help at all."


	8. Chapter 8

Harry was staring at the ceiling.

He had taken to staring at the ceiling when something was troubling him. It was a habit that he knew drove Lara to distraction. He wasn't a still child, he knew, so for him to be doing nothing other than lying on his back on the cold concrete floor in the garage, staring at the plain white ceiling was so out of character that she didn't know what to do with him. So she did what was probably the best thing she could do.

She left him alone to think.

It wasn't helping this time.

Harry sighed and held out his hand, stretching his arm to the side with his palm down. Settling his magic he pushed a bit from his core out through his arm and into his fingertips. He smirked a bit, the first hint of an expression since he'd left the library, and remembered the monks. He'd found, like Lara had, that the Tibetan monks had a rather odd sense of humor. The head monk, he'd never found out their names, had taught him this (most likely classified as useless) bit of magic. He could meditate at anytime, anywhere, while doing almost anything. He could lose himself in his core, as it were, so it helped to have something outside of his self to concentrate on.

Like the bright red bouncy ball that dropped, newly formed, from his palm and smacked the concrete with a dull thwack. The whack of the ball as it met his skin was something he could feel, the sound of the ball bouncing off the concrete was an auditory anchor. He couldn't get too distracted from his thoughts now.

And if he were honest with himself he kind of wanted to be distracted.

Sirius Black.

He'd no clue what to think, say, do… but he followed his instincts and listened as the man poured out his heart and soul. He admitted to his young arrogance, apologized for being too proud, too angry, too lost to have stayed and taken care of Harry. He'd just snapped, and went hunting, forgetting that the only thing that should have mattered to him at that point was Harry… And at this point Harry still had no clue what he'd been talking about.

Oh, he knew the basics of the entire tale. Voldemort killed his parents, was going to kill him, but something unknown happened and Harry hadn't died. Due to this he was famous in the Wizarding world.

That and a sickle would get you some decent pumpkin juice.

What Sirius had told him, what he had sobbed out at times, was a masterpiece of misunderstandings and horrible decisions. Sirius had admitted, he'd gone just a bit spare for a while, and before he'd had a chance to object, he'd been thrown into Azkaban, where he'd continued his short trip to the land of crazy's.

He found out why Lara had been late for their trip to Warsaw, and then admitted that it was probably best that Sirius had spoken with a few mind healers before trying anything as strenuous as meeting the young man he should have raised.

They spoke of so much, yet nothing felt resolved.

Harry now understood why Lara had always told him that his life was complicated. No more so than her own, he'd always joked. But he didn't have a joke ready for this.

No. Not for this.

Sirius had left, he still wasn't ready to be out on his own, he was still staying at a private ward with his own healer on constant standby. He'd been honest with Harry, and told the boy he'd a lot he still needed to go through before they could really get to know each other… which was about as personal as they were willing to get about the future, really.

Remus might have been disappointed that Padfoot didn't just jump in and demand to be a part of Harry's life right away. But he understood the decision, and Harry had said that they'd visit as they could. An olive branch, Remus knew, and one that Sirius had grasped with gratitude. Harry was in no way deprived of people who loved and understood him. The addition of another one could only be a good thing.

* * *

Remus smiled down at Neville, who wasn't distressed at the absence of his friend, who was more than happy to ask Remus questions about whatever had caught his interest in the books he'd been assigned to read.

Neville was a bright student, a bit clumsy perhaps, but if Remus remembered correctly his father had been clumsy as well… until he shot up to his six and a half foot height between fifth and seventh year. Judging by the size of Neville's hands, that was more likely the problem than anything else. And judging by the intelligent questions asked, the boy was going to be either a herbologist or a potions maniac.

When Remus first started basic lessons, the boys nagged until he'd agreed around their first year in grade school, he'd been perplexed by their completely opposing ideas of what exactly magic was and how it could be used. They'd obviously talked about it amongst themselves, had most likely stolen some of his magical theory books and puzzled their ways through them, and had come up with two widely different conclusions.

The thing was, Remus couldn't refute either one. Both were valid points, and each one thought out brilliantly. So he taught them separately, keeping each theory as the basic model for the individual lessons and together when theory didn't interfere with the lesson itself.

Neville was convinced that magic was something that came from the Earth. Citing "Mother Earth" as the originator of all life and therefore energy, such as magic, could only come from the Earth's core. He agreed with Harry that there was a core of energy in each person, but that it was replenished by the magic of the earth, not self.

Harry, on the other hand, insisted that each person, when born, had a magical core. What made a person able to use magic were the instinctive blocks or the hereditary ability to access this core. Most magical families had magical children. Squibs were something that happened genetically, just as sometimes brown haired parents had blond haired children. Muggle born students were throwbacks in much the same way as Squibs, just opposite.

Remus had been astounded, and oh so pleased, to have such students. He argued with them during theory talks, and had published many papers (with their permission of course) based on these discussions. As a result he found himself not only a teacher, but a student as well. He believed that no one should stop learning, no matter what age they were. As a result he was contemplating something that he believed would, and could do nothing, but help expand the curious minds he found himself nurturing.

He wondered, seriously, if Nicholas Flamel might be up to taking on summer students?

* * *

Harry loved Alchemy. Mr. Flamel was a bright, interested, interesting teacher, and he'd only gotten better as he helped Remus tutor them. Harry and Neville had gotten to the point in their studies by their birthdays that they were doing basic transmutations with chalked arrays and focused energy. In fact they enjoyed chatting with Nicholas about oddball theories they'd been looking into, such as "panacea" or "putrefactio", which Nicholas said wasn't such an oddball theory and then proceeded to explain by purifying water from a pile of mud he'd stomped out into the garden to get. Which in turn pissed off his wife, who had scolded him about mud in the carpet until he snapped at her, "Dear lord you'd think you weren't a witch!"

Harry and Neville had learned early in their relationship with the man that when he argued with his wife it was always prudent to duck. So they munched on freshly baked cookies as Perenelle tried to remember the counter jinx to the hex she'd sent at her husband in her temper. Nicholas, for the most part, was just glaring at the boys, unable to open his mouth to scold their smug grins for he had no mouth at the moment to scold with.

So they were sitting in the large plush chairs in the family room when two separate owls winged in the open window and deposited parchment envelopes on the boys laps.

On the wax seal was the Hogwarts coat of arms.

"Well Harry, we've been summoned," Neville laughed at the sour expression on his friends face. "C'mon now, it won't be that bad!"

"I am having a perfectly fine time going to Muggle School and being tutored magically by two of the most brilliant minds of the wizarding world," Harry pointed out, meaning Remus and Nicholas, who blushed brilliantly with pleasure when he worked out what it was Harry was implying. "I see no reason to go to a boarding school, away from the people I love, to get a substandard education." He waved the open letter in Neville's face. "I mean, read this! It says nothing about basic courses does it? Where's the math? The reading? I'm never going to get into Uni without my A-levels! And we'll be in Scotland! I'd be lucky to be able to at least study for Highers! "

"Harry!" Neville shoved his friends shoulder to cut off the rant. "Do you really think Lara would let you go to Hogwarts and forget about your compulsory education? I think she's got Remus drawing up plans for self study."

"Really?" he asked after blinking for a bit, absently taking another bite of cookie.

"Didn't you talk to them about this? I did," Neville smirked at Harry's obliviousness.

"Well, not really, I was kind of busy yelling at them to really pay attention." Harry shrugged with a quiet blush. Neville had once again done what he was best at… keeping Harry Potter out of trouble. Perenelle thanked the boy once her vases where all back on the table, safe and sound after having floated in the midst of Harry's rant.

Then she snapped her fingers in a brilliant eureka pose, waved her wand at her husband and blushed bright pink as the area his lips should have been suddenly sprouted a tropical yellow beak. Then she placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

"Well shit."

* * *

"Harry!"

"He's a dick!" Harry protested when Lara objected.

"Harry," Lara was not amused. Ok, she was a little amused and the fact that she had to consciously stop the smirk was irritating. "That is not acceptable behavior and you know it. Apologize."

The blond weasel standing in front of Harry didn't have to keep his smirk to himself. He lorded his advantage over Harry, as if being so smug and self-righteous would protect him from Harry's swift tongue.

"Alright," Harry said equally. "I'm sorry you're a dick." Harry barely managed to keep his own smirk from growing any larger as Neville snorted behind him, unable to stop the decent into giggling.

"That's not what I meant," Lara rolled her eyes as the boy standing on the stool in Madame Malkins Robes for All Occasions, glared.

"Then you should be more specific, shouldn't you?" Harry returned. Besides, he wanted to know just where she got off, telling him off for defending her. That little prick had just called his Aunt a Mudblood and dismissed her before assuming that Harry would want to shake his precious hand. So Harry had said the first thing that came to his mind. And so what if it had been a bit vulgar? At least he'd been honest.

"Don't you know who I am?" The little ponce was actually puffing up his chest. Neville was still giggling, but managed to wave his hand and smack Harry's shoulder.

"Draco Malfoy," he forced between deep breaths, trying to get his breath back.

"Oh, so this is the git who.."

"Yeah," Neville straightened up and smiled innocently at Draco. "Pleasure to see you again Malfoy, I see you got the dye out of your hair... Pity that, suited you."

"Don't start with me you… you…" Draco didn't seem to be able to come up with anything original, so he attacked with the first thing that came to mind; which happened to be the vulgar turn of phrase that had gotten Harry in trouble with Lara. Of course he'd said it just as the front door jangled open and his mother walked in. She'd stopped so abruptly at the sight of her son swearing at the Longbottom boy, that she'd completely dismissed Harry and Lara, and grabbed her son by his ear; forcing him to follow her back out into the street, shrieking about proper language and blood purity.

"Well, that was an auspicious start to our shopping trip. Wouldn't you agree?" Harry asked Lara, with a bit more cheek than necessary.

Lara just sighed. "You are still going to Hogwarts. If you get kicked out in the first week, whatever, I don't care; but you are still going. Understand me?"

* * *

Harry didn't need another reason to hate Hogwarts. But damn were they just piling up! First almost all the wizarding children who'd grown up on tales about him on the train wanted to shake his hand, the only ones to be even vaguely amusing had been the Weasley twins, and those who didn't want to shake his hand wanted to glare at him in a "menacing manner". The muggle borne had no clue why Harry was having such a big stink made of him, which only confused matters when they asked and were told in no uncertain terms that he was _Harry Potter_… as if that would help.

It got to the point were Harry had barricaded his door and glared at Neville for being singularly unhelpful in controlling the hordes. Neville merely pointed out that Harry would have to pay for his fame somehow, and it was best that they got it over with before term started.

Then he'd been stuck in the last boat (he'd tried to avoid the stares and lagged behind) with Malfoy and a kid named Seamus who couldn't stop from making awe filled "oh" sounds at the sight of the castle. Malfoy smirked, and Harry could only agree, which only soured his mood to be on the same wavelength with Malfoy about anything. Harry had seen the golden tinted ruins of The Great Pyramids; he'd been inside abandoned city's that had been swallowed by the sea. He'd been to Japan and climbed the millions of stairs it took to get up to the truly magnificent shrines. He only felt it was a pity that such a nice castle had been turned into a school for brats who couldn't possibly appreciate it.

He snorted in amusement as they entered the castle, following McGonagall, who promised to be a strict teacher. He was starting to sound like an old man in his own mind. He really needed to work on that.

Then the hush came when his name was called to sort him. He straightened his back and marched to the stool, then jerked a bit when the hat came down around his ears. How completely undignified was this?

After a fairly short argument between himself and the hat he managed to be placed into Gryffindor. The hat wanted to put him in Slytherin, Harry wanted to burn Malfoy's bed down around him. The hat prudently placed temptation out of Harry's sight and went with the second choice. That way everyone was happy, or at least unsinged.

Harry sat down next to Neville and tired, after a full day of battles, ignored everyone around him. He managed to make it up to the dorm only because Neville was guiding him, and collapsed with a sigh onto his new, unfamiliar bed.

He groaned when his pocket rang.

"Harry, just answer it. He'll bug you all night and none of us with get any sleep," Neville complained as he pulled his own pajamas from his trunk. Seamus Finnigan, the half-blood student who'd been in his boat, frown as Harry pulled something from his pocket.

"I thought cell phones and other electronics wouldn't work here…?" he trailed off as Harry turned it around to show that he was holding a little make-up mirror. Instead of showing the room they were in though, it seemed like there were two men fighting over who got to hold the mirror on the other side. He heard a few curse words before the shorter man with the wispy mustache pulled away with a triumphant, "Ah-HA!"

"I got into Gryffindor, everyone is staring at me, the food was good but the idiot headmaster almost broke my eardrums with his stupid school song, and I'm bloody tired, so goodnight!" Harry said while facing the mirror, then tossed it over his shoulder before collapsing back into his bed. Neville caught the flying device and smiled gently, talking to the person on the other side.

"I'm afraid Harry is in a bit of a bad mood right now Remus, did you have any questions that he didn't address? I'm sure I could answer them," Neville shrugged.

"No, thank you Neville, I'll go inform Lara that her nephew is safe and sound in Hogwarts and she can stop pacing the hallway carpet now. Here, talk to Sirius, he's been driving me batters all day."

Neville chatted with Sirius for a few minutes, calling teasingly over to Harry that his dog wished to speak with him and was only rewarded with a middle finger sticking straight into the air.

"Sorry Sirius, he's indisposed at the moment," he laughed as he said goodbye, then covered the mirror with a felt bag that had slipped from Harry's pocket onto the floor by his bed. Then he placed it on the nightstand, slipped the glasses from Harry's face and placed them next to the mirror, then tugged his friends shoes from his feet before flipping the comforter over his shoulders.

Seamus, Dean Thomas and Ronald Weasley watched all of this with puzzled expressions, which Neville caught, but didn't feel the need to comment on. If they wanted to know so bloody much they could gather the stones and outright ask. They would in time, he knew, they weren't all Gryffindor's for nothing.

* * *

"I don't get it," his voice was dry, his entire demeanor confused. That was really the only reason Minerva didn't take points for the fact that Harry wasn't even attempting to do the spell.

"What exactly don't you understand Mr. Potter? Do you need another demonstration on the wand movements? Miss. Granger has them down competently." She didn't normally compliment her students on the first day, but Hermione seemed intent to succeed, and she got the feeling the poor girl needed someone on her side.

"No, that's not it Professor," Harry looked over at Hermione and gave the girl a slight smile. He had no clue that it was the first positive notion a fellow student had ever given her. She blushed brilliantly.

"Then what is the problem Mr. Potter?"

"No offense," he started with, because she seemed like a really nice lady and that cat trick had been cool, even if he was a bit disillusioned about animagi. Padfoot had forever scarred him the time Harry had caught the older man licking himself. Apparently the urge to do things the animal would normally do was strong, and if you didn't pay attention... "But when will I ever need to know how to turn a matchstick into a needle? I can just go and buy a needle. Also, I heard how the older classes are turning hedgehogs into pincushions. Why would you turn a hedgehog into a pincushion? And really, isn't it just cruel to the hedgehog? I mean, here he is, a creature with a rational thought process, and then suddenly, he's a pin cushion? Is he aware of what has happened to him? Does he feel the pin being pushed in? I just don't think I can continue until I know exactly what is going on…" he paused in his musing when he realized that most of the class was gaping at him. Professor McGonagall had a frozen smile with her eyes blinking rapidly, trying to respond but unable to follow Harry's thought process. Hermione was looking down at her needle in horrified fascination… but the rest of the class was looking at him like he was insane… except for Neville. The traitor was giggling furiously with his head laid down on the desk. Harry just knew there were tears, and he also knew that somewhere money was exchanging hands.

He'd managed to be the first student ever to render Professor McGonagall speechless. (1)

* * *

"You're not only a dick, you're an ignorant dick!" Harry managed to keep himself from smirking. But only just. Draco Malfoy was fuming, his fists clutched so hard his knuckles were turning white.

"That's right Harry! Give that Slytherin what for!" the Weasley kid was cheering him on, Neville was just chuckling softly. Hermione, who'd been the one Draco had insulted, was watching the confrontation with awe. Nobody had ever stood up for her before. Today was turning into a red-letter kind of day.

"Let me ask you a question Draco, I can call you Draco can't I?" he asked, then continued without waiting for a reply. "How exactly is Hermione's blood dirty?"

"Because she's a muggle-born!" Draco shouted, his fat cohorts nodding sagely behind him.

"Uh-huh," Harry nodded as if thinking it over. "She's muggle born. Well my mother was muggle born and my father was a full blood wizard. Wouldn't that make ME the mudblood? I mean, she's got one hundred percent muggle as far back as the eye can see, she'd be a pure-blood muggle, you'd be a pure blood wizard, and since I'm half and half, that would make me the odd one out. Right?"

The crowd that had gathered in the hallway gasped. That couldn't be right… could it?

"But considering that the term itself came from a muggle book I find it just that much more ironic." Harry kept the sneer from his voice, but Neville couldn't quite still his laughter.

"Harry, what do you mean?" Hermione, suddenly interested in debate, having completely forgotten the reason for the fight in the first place, turned to Harry with a frown.

"Have you read the Bible Hermione?"

"Of course!" She scoffed, "It helps with my essays tremendously!" Harry wasn't surprised. He'd known the girl less than a day and already he knew she strived toward perfection… he'd have to fix that later.

"How did God make man?" he asked. The hallway held its collective breath.

"He took the earth and shaped man in his… Oh!" She jumped up and clapped her hands. "Man was created by mud! Woman was created by taking one of mans ribs! Everyone is a mudblood!" She shouted, ecstatic.

"Miss Granger!" The shout was indignant, and horrified. Professor McGonagall was outraged, and the hallway was deserted very quickly. All that were left were Harry, who was smiling indulgently, Hermione who was blushing horribly, and Neville. Neville who was laughing so hard he was squeaking trying to take his next breath. He was failing miserably. Harry absently wondered if, along with the rest of the outdated relics lining the halls, the hospital wing had an iron lung…

* * *

allright! The longest chapter yet! I had bits and pieces, such as Harry's first confrontation with Malfoy, and the last part about Mudbloods about a month ago, but I couldn't for the life of me connect them... Until now, so I hope you enjoyed and I had a bit of a note,

1_) Just so you know, I was rereading Strains of Melody by hoshi-tachi, chapter six/seven, and this classroom scene popped into my head… I don't know how, I don't know why… but I had to write it down before it went away. BTW, highly recommend hoshi-tachi!_


	9. Chapter 9

Update!!!!

* * *

Friday morning dawned with Harry determined to be pleasant. It was a mood that did not dominate his life, but he would do almost anything to avoid another Saturday morning detention, which he earned by "instigating an improper event". He still really had no clue what McGonagall had meant by that, but he hated getting up early on a day he was fully entitled to lay like a lump in his bed.

He, Hermione, and Malfoy all got a detention for whatever it was that was up the Professors butt. He hadn't broken Sirius's record yet for first detention of the year, but he was only off by two hours.

It occurred to Harry that today, of all days, might be the hardest day he ever had to fake "pleasant", and it was all because of Potions class.

Remus had warned him, beware of Snape. Do not antagonize, do not meet his eyes or if he challenges do not deliberately turn away, do not be a smart ass Harry, because he will slap you down for it.

So Harry woke with Friday morning and meditated instead of shoving for his turn in the bathroom. He laid in the middle of the room and looked up at the ceiling, bouncing his ball, centering his thoughts and emotions.

After a while he forgot that he wasn't alone in the room. Ron Weasley sat cross legged on his bed, just watching as Harry's eyes unfocused and his breathing evened. Not wanting to interrupt he snagged Neville's sleeve and whispered.

"What is he doing?"

"He's meditating. Our tutor told us that Potions might be difficult because the teacher really hated Harry's dad. So Harry is trying to be nice today," Neville shook his head with a little smile. "He's centering himself so he hopefully won't swing out with snark. It's a well honed technique, but as you saw the other day, tends to get him in trouble."

"My brothers said that Professor Snape is the most evil git ever. Each and every one of them… even Percy doesn't debate it."

"And you saw how Harry was with McGonagall… can you imagine?"

"Maybe Harry should fake a sicky today," Ron mused. Neville just quirked a side grin.

"Bet a sickle Harry snaps within ten minutes," he offered.

"Five," Ron countered, and they shook hands.

* * *

Breakfast was no different than any other breakfast, other than the fact that Harry's scar twinged uncomfortably for a second. He took a breath, re-centered himself, and concentrated on the feeling. For a bare breath he wondered why Quirrel would make his scar react now, when it hadn't done a single thing in the stuttering Professors class room, but he buried the thought under his, "things to think later" when he realized he was running a bit late for class if he didn't get his butt moving.

With a quick glance at his map he considered routes, and then tugged Neville's sleeve.

"Look, I'm going to try an alternate path, if I don't make it in time, stall."

Neville merely nodded and finished his eggs before collecting his bag and standing.

"What's he up to?" Ron asked as Harry left, a full ten minutes before he should have had to.

"He's going to try and relax his body, the same kind of thing he did with his mind this morning." Neville shrugged as they started toward Potions.

"He's going to mediate again?" Ron asked, then jumped a bit to the side as Hermione came up, juggling reference books as she made sure she had what she needed.

"Here, hold," she shoved a few books at Ron until he accepted them with an eye roll. "What's this about Harry mediating something?" she asked, distracted a bit as she organized her bag.

"Meditating, Hermione," Neville corrected. "And I guess you could call it that, only with his body instead of his mind."

"Ohh… Like a kata? With martial arts?" Hermione would have started waxing eloquently on the books she'd read about karate and its sibling arts if Neville hadn't chuckled.

"No, he can and does do a few strengthening kata, he mostly practices with his aunt. But at the moment he's probably jumping off a balcony."

* * *

Harry contemplated the distances, and nodded when he decided on his first route. Glad he'd given his school books and robes to Neville that morning, because he knew that he'd snag on several obstacles if he hadn't. He stretched a bit, cracking his neck with a satisfying pop before backing up against the wall, and checking to make sure no students would interfere with his projected flight, and he shot himself over a railing and onto one of the moving staircases right as it passed underneath. With just a second to spare he rolled and disappeared into the vanishing step and dropped with a tumble and a wry grin into the second sub floor dungeon area. He had about four minutes to get to class, which was one floor above and about three hallways away from where he now crouched. He launched himself down the long hallway, skidding on the wall for a second to avoid a group of third year Slytherins who had just exited their common room. He reveled in the gasps as he tumbled over himself and just barely managed to clear all four heads before skidding back down onto the floor. He took a second to gather his breath and laughed as he just started to book it down the hallway. He now had two minutes.

He grabbed the staircase railing and flipped over it to land halfway up, ran up most of the stairs left before capturing the opposite rail and jumping up on top of it to reach the hallway railing and vaulting over it.

"One minute," Neville commented dryly as he handed Harry his robe. Harry just smirked, grabbed his robe and the accompanying hand towel to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

"Whatever would I do without you Jeeves?" he asked.

"Get to your seats, NOW."

* * *

Harry had to take a deep breath before he said something that someone, somewhere would regret. He wouldn't mind another detention, really, if it meant standing up to this prick.

After what he obviously thought was an elegant and intimidating speech, Snape called them all dunderheads and then picked on Harry's knowledge of several different higher level potions questions. He'd forgotten the first question, knew the second considering he lived with a freak'n werewolf, and the third was so stupid he snorted.

"Do you not know the answer Mr. Potter?" Snape sneered.

"It's just that I always thought it was odd that a stone, which resides in the stomach of a goat, could cure poison attacks." Harry nudged Neville, who held back his own chuckle. He remembered that Lara had forbidden them from hunting down a goat, just to see if this odd fact really was true. Harry had been all set. He'd had his dynamite ready, as always.

"Well, Mr. Potter, it seems that you've been reading ahead. Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek!" And with another slimy sneer he turned on his heel, his cloak twirling like a gown with his momentum.

Harry couldn't help it. He had to.

"_Boom_," he whispered under his breath. In the front of the classroom, on Snape's desk, in his already simmering cauldron, a flash bang went off. Smoke poured from the opening, staining Snape's skin a sooty gray before he had a chance to back away. Neville smirked and leaned over to Ron…

"Potter! Detention!"

"Seven minutes." Neville whispered, chuckling softly at Ron's pout, happily accepting his prize.

* * *

After a long and boring detention in the morning, which consisted of writing lines, "_I will not refer to anyone as a mudblood, it is inappropriate and cruel,_" and a nice and uneventful lunch, Harry sighed and broke off from his friends for his afternoon of detention.

Snape didn't greet him, only handed him a stiff bristle brush and pointed at the crusted over cauldrons in the corner. Harry rolled his eyes, but got to work, and was done a few hours before dinner. Without really thinking, he was tired after all, he got turned around and ended up in the third floor corridor.

Once he realized where he was he tried to step back onto the staircase, but the stupid thing moved without him. As he looked around for another exit, he heard what he could swear was breathing behind one of the doors.

Remus had often cursed James for his sense of curiosity that had gotten the Marauders into such trouble so often, and Harry had often given him reason to curse the fact that it was apparently hereditary.

As Harry approached the door he stepped cautiously, but when no one popped up to stop him he placed his hand on the locked doorknob and turned it as if it weren't locked. Harry had learned that sometimes intent was all that was needed. He wanted to open the door, he believed he could open the door, so the door opened.

The door opened to the sight of a humongous three headed dog who lay napping, his paws crossed under his heads, over a trap door in the floor. Very carefully Harry closed the door again, and willed it locked.

"Well that was interesting."

* * *

_… Just before Halloween…_

Neville was studying, slouched in the soft couch cushions in front of the fire when suddenly the gossip of the students lounging behind him penetrated his concentration.

"They think it's the Philosopher's stone…" one whispered, another nodded sagely.

"Yep, It was brought here to protect it from dark wizards… that's why we can't go into the third floor corridor…"

"How do you know all this?"

"A little intelligent deductive reasoning…"

"And the fact that Hagrid can't seem to keep his mouth shut…"

Neville scoffed, perhaps a bit louder than he meant to, for the group of students turned to glare at him.

"What's so funny?" Ron glared.

"Nothing whatsoever," Neville shrugged it off and attempted to go back to his book.

"No, you obviously think something's wrong with my solution, so let's hear it!" Ron stood, planted his fist on the couch arm and frowned what he obviously thought was a menacing grimace. Neville, having been on the receiving end of many terrifying frowns through his grandmother, merely shook his head.

"It's not that your idea isn't well thought out Ron, you just don't have all the facts," Again Neville turned back to his book. He sighed, tired, when Ron just ripped the book from his lack grasp and tossed it across the room.

"Give me the facts then, oh wise one," the sarcasm was not missed. Nor was the yipe that came from the staircase as the flying book bounced off Harry's head.

"Why am I being assaulted by the written word?" He asked, the book in his hand, his other hand rubbing the spot on his skull the corner had impacted.

"Ron is upset," Neville held his hand out for his book, which Harry handed back to him before flopping down on the couch next to his friend, actually sitting on his feet.

"Why is Ron upset this time?" Harry asked, yawning. The last time Ron had been upset it was because Harry and Neville backed Hermione instead of him. It wasn't that they particularly cared about the argument, but Ron was being the more annoying of the two that time. And they took sides only as they saw fit, more often than not disagreeing with each other and backing separate candidates. That way when the bets were taken, it was a fair spread…

"He thinks Dumbledore is hiding the Philosophers stone in the third floor corridor," Neville opened his book to the correct page and started reading again.

"Impossible," Harry replied, settling down into the cushions as if readying himself for a nice long nap.

"Why?" Ron cried out, frustrated. "If I'm wrong I'll admit it! But just tell me!"

Harry looked over at Neville, Neville stared back and with a small nod went back to his book, effectively shutting out the rest of the room.

"Neville and I had a bit of a tutoring summer with Nicolas Flamel. Our official tutor knew him from way back… anyway, we asked him toward the end of July how he made his Philosopher's stone. You want to know what he said?"

"Of course!" Not only was Ron hanging on every word, but so was the rest of Gryffindor tower. Harry paused, let his gaze sweep the room until everyone shuddered slightly with the intensity. Harry almost laughed, Sirius had been right. Gryffindor's all loved a good suspense story.

"There is no such thing as a Philosopher's stone."

The silence was almost deafening.

"What?" Ron spat out into the sudden stillness. "Then what was almost stolen from Gringotts? What is the three headed dog guarding?"

"Fluffy? Nothing I guess. Or at least nothing that someone thinks is something… hmm… I'm going to have to think on that." Harry closed his eyes as if contemplating a nice long nap.

"That can't be right! It says on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card! It says he helped make it!"

"There is no Philosopher's stone," Harry repeated. "It's a concept. It's like an abstract painting. You know it's there, and you know it represents something, but if you don't look at it right, or with the proper frame of mind, you're lost."

"Basically it's an idealized way of looking at the world. It's a concept that's so incredible it must be strived toward." Neville commented, not looking up from his book.

"What about the Flamels? Aren't they like, a million years old?"

"Yep," Harry nodded. "And every bit as spry as if they were only a thousand…" Harry shook his head in disappointment, they were all looking at him odd, the wizarding world needed to work on their sarcasm. "I thought you knew. Wizards age differently after puberty than regular humans. If we take extraordinarily good care of ourselves we could live to be around four hundred ourselves. Nicolas runs every morning, Perenelle works on her garden or cooks, or rides her bike. They take muggle multi-vitamins, every time they feel the least bit ill they mix up a healing potion. They don't abuse their bodies, and they keep their minds sharp."

"So basically you're saying that if I exercise and eat well I'll live to be older that dirt? Ron asked dryly.

"Uh-Huh." Harry nodded. He then closed his eyes again and fell promptly asleep.

Hours later, as Neville and Harry sat, reading for muggle Maths and filling out the proper tutor sheets, Neville poked Harry with his pen.

"What was all that shit? You know that the Philosopher's stone…" Harry smiled in response.

"Look, Neville, do you really think that Nicolas would like his formula known? Why do you think he's allowed the rumor of the "stone" to flourish? You know as well as I do that he came across the concept by accident! If he and Perenelle hadn't been sharing lab space at the time that explosion would never have happened. I'm sure he'd be happy with us, coming up with another diversion."

"Yes, I'm sure. But now the students are going to really want to know what's under the third floor corridor!" Harry blinked.

"Well, shit."

* * *

Ok, so that was the new update... And I feel the odd need to explain something. I was arguing "For/Against" with my brother... it's a game we play. Devils Advocate more like. Nature or Nurture, and I figured it might make Harry easier to understand. Basically I feel that everyone is born with a base personality, not the same base, mind you, but a base. As we grow older our experiences shape us to who we are. So it's an odd cross of Nature/Nurture. Harry, my version in this story, is a bit of a pain. He's self-assured and obviously thinks he knows what he's doing, or is going to do and to hell with the consequences. To that I say, look at Lara. She's a self-assured young woman who gets what she wants, and If she doesn't, she knows why and usually fixes it so she gets it in the end anyway. At the same time, there is a humility there not often seen in Aristocracy. It's an attitude I felt worked with Harry's intristic personality very well. Harry is a child who stands for what he truly believes in, he's very Hufflepuff in that way. He knows who his friends are, and recognizes his enemys. He knows what is acceptable AND (more importantly) how to get around that when he needs to. He's very Slytherin in that way. Bt his base personality is Gryffindor. He can't change that. He rushes headfirst into danger when he needs to. When it's immediate action that needs done, he does it and to hell with the consequences. Of course in canon some of those consequences end up killing people... Cedric, Sirius... le'sigh... but we won't let that happen this time, now will we?

hope you liked the new chapter! that part with snape was kicking my butt... i had this great idea for a conversation between harry and mcgonagall about snape, but then i realized it would do better between harry and remus... so sorry, you have to wait for the christmas break for that... and the real big blow up between harry and snape. it just didn't really fit in here. but rest assured, harry gets in alot of trouble with snape in this timeline, and sometimes he even deserves it! (how would you like a student to blow up your cauldron... and no, i have no clue how he got the dynamite in there. it's harry, what can i say?)

(and that bit with the stone will be developed further...)


	10. Chapter 10

Here you go... I was having a bit of trouble with the Troll scene. I couldn't think of anything that hadn't been done before... and then I realized that i'd made completely different relationships than those that had been in canon. I hope you enjoy what I came up with!

ps- USS Stingray = Down Periscope... I highly recommend the movie. It shaped my humor along with Undercover Blues, Hudson Hawk and Clue... enjoy!

* * *

The hallway was deathly quiet. Harry watched over the crowd with a sinking feeling in his gut. In fact, as Hermione took a deep breath and blinked away the encroaching tears, he could swear he heard his inner USS Stingray screaming, "Dive! Dive!" and he could only be pleased he was out of reach. It was a wonder Ron was still breathing, after what he'd said.

Hermione, as Harry had predicted, had needed a bit of loosening up. Unfortunately it was slow going, and she still managed to put other students backs up with her "helpful hints". This time she'd tried to help Ron in Charms class, which only made him madder and more flustered. He'd managed to make his feather float, but at the same time it had burst into flames.

As they left the classroom he'd grumbled to Seamus, unaware that she was right behind him, "It's a wonder she's got any friends at all. Little Miss Know-it-All." The gasp behind him caused him to pause, and the rest of the class to gather around in a loose group.

And, for a while, it looked like Hermione might cry. Then her eyes narrowed and her lips set in a fierce frown. She reached over and tapped Ron lightly on the shoulder, then as he turned she pulled back her fist. The entire thing seemed to happen in slow motion, Hermione's fist springing forward, Ron's head snapping back, the spurt of blood from his broken nose flinging itself over his head… Then time slapped back into place as Ron collapsed backward onto the cold stone floor, his hand clutched over his nose, his eyes squeezed shut in agony as tears escaped the corners and dripped down the sides of his face and into his sprawled hair.

Hermione just sniffed imperiously, held her perfectly intact nose in the air, spun on her heel and stalked away. Students moved aside, fearful of reprisal, so it looked like a sea of black robes opening before her.

Neville smirked for a second, "Brill." he snickered and ran off to congratulate Hermione on her perfect aim.

"Ron… Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron," Harry shook his head as the crowd started to disperse. "For someone so good as Chess, you really miss the obvious sometimes, then, doncha?" With a small sigh he stepped forward to help Ron to is feet. "Come on then, lets get you to Pomfrey."

* * *

With Ron in the Hospital wing Halloween dinner was filled with people recounting "Hermione's Stand", as it was starting to be called. Ravenclaws were only interested in first hand accounts, the closer the better, so they flocked around Hermione. They even went so far as to push Gryffindors out of their seats, forcing them to sit with the Hufflepuffs or the Ravenclaws who didn't have as much interest in Hermione's Stand. Dumbledoor watched with mild bemusement as for the first time in his career his students were intermingling houses. Only the Slytherin's didn't switch tables, but he had noticed a few of them had paused by Hermione to congratulate her on standing up for herself. Most noticeably Tracey Davis, who was already gaining the reputation in the Slytherin house as a girl who did not take bull from any boy, not even one in her own house.

As dinner continued on, explaining the Stand had taken little time, Hermione started talking about Halloween and the traditions in the Muggle world. Ravenclaws hung on her every word, Hufflepuffs seemed to enjoy the notion of dressing up, and Gryffindors kept asking about the "tricking" part of "Trick or Treat", while some Slytherins unbent enough to sneer at the "quaint muggle traditions" proving that they'd at least been listening. Other Mugglebornes soon started regaling the hall with their own tales, and Dumbledoor had to admit, he hadn't seen a more festive Halloween since the year the Mauraders managed to get everyone to dress in costume.

The night was going very well indeed, that is until the large doors at the end of the hall burst open and Professor Quirrel stumbled through shrieking something about a Troll in the dungeons before passing out rather spectacularly at Harry Potter's feet.

_

* * *

_

Dear Aunt Lara,

_Don't Panic. I am perfectly all right, and I didn't get anywhere near the Troll. _

_During the Halloween feast a Troll managed to find it's way into the castle. How I'm sure I'll never know, considering the brain capacity of those things is less that a headless kitten… speaking of, how's my snake? _

_Anyway, the teachers locked us all in the great hall and went Troll hunting. Didn't you know it's Troll hunting season? Dumbledoor left the great hall wearing a hunting helmet that came straight from an Elmer Fudd cartoon, I swear. _

_But I do have to ask, just how safe is a building that an idiot Troll can just waltz into? How extensive is my education going to be when my defense teacher faints in front of his students from sheer terror? Its starting to feel like it would be more productive if I set a baked potato on his desk and we just stared at it for two hours. Yes, I'm rolling my eyes. _

_I can almost feel my magic entropy here. Ignore Neville, it's not that great. He just likes to watch me get in trouble every five minutes. Some great friend he is. _

_You know, they had to explode the Troll? Neville just watched, snickering, as I stepped in Troll brains… that's how I know just how much mass was in that head. It was mostly bone and guts strewn across the courtyard, not many brains. At least it was easy to scrape off my shoe. And how difficult would it be to clean up the mess before a student had a chance to see it? huh? I mean, really... all right, we weren't supposed to detour through the courtyard, but I did want to see it..._

_I am coming home for Christmas right? You won't be off in the Andes hunting down the Abominable Snowman? I hear he's not even in the Andes that time of year. He stays close by London during Christmas so that adventuring Aunts will stick around for their poor, orphaned nephews… _

_Anyway, the bell just rang and McGonagall is giving me her glare of death. _

_I'll write again soon. _

_Harry (I'd write "Love Harry" but you sent me to this stupid school, and you deserve me being a petulant preteen, look at all the growing up you're missing. You miss me, and you know it.) _

* * *

Hermione sat in one of the plush red chairs that littered the common room, reading a letter that was obviously sent from one of her parents. The muggle notebook paper being a huge clue. She sighed and rubbed her eyelids as she sat back and set the letter down on her knee.

"What's new pussycat?" Neville asked as he collapsed into the chair next to her.

"Very funny Neil," she smirked. Hermione had never had friends like Neville and Harry before. Of course their speech was not only educated higher than their year, as hers was, but they also managed to sneak in pop culture references that seemed to throw the wizarding children into confused frowns. When she understood what they were saying, for some reason she felt special, more so then when she read ahead in her texts and could more than keep up with the teachers.

"What's with the pensive frown Hermione?" Neville asked as he snatched the paper from her knee.

"Nothing much, it's just that, well I don't know what to tell my parents about school and all. It's so foreign to them, I'm afraid that every time I try to explain I end up bricking myself into a corner…"

"Well, that's easy enough to fix," Harry stated as he collapsed on the floor in front of them, spreading himself out so his legs were in the aisle and everyone who wanted to go up to the rooms had to step over him.

"Are you purposefully being an ass today?" Hermione asked him, then covered up her mouth in shock. Before she started hanging out with these two she'd never sworn before in her life! She kicked Harry's legs out of the way in a fit of spite. What were her parents going to say about her sudden lack of propriety?

"The answer to that question is yes, but still, how would you and your parents like to come over for Christmas dinner?" Harry asked as he sat up against Neville's legs.

"What?" Hermione just stared at Harry, her mouth open, still covered with her hand from earlier.

"Your parents could ask Remus all the questions they'd like, he'd be able to answer them in a way that muggles could understand, and my aunt would see that I have made the effort to be somewhat civilized and make new friends, not just irritate new enemies. It's a win-win."

"Harry…" Hermione tried to say what she was thinking, but she couldn't get the words past the great big lump in her throat. This was the first time in her entire life someone from school had invited her over! She launched herself from her chair and pulled Harry into a glomp-hug.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

* * *

The day before Winter Holidays was supposed to be a day of fun, a day that most teachers took the lesson off and invited their students to do something fun with what they'd learned so far in class. They'd made ornaments in Transfiguration, taught them to float in Charms class, and History of Magic even managed to be interesting for once. They'd learned about how the Three Kings in the Bible were actually Wizards, and the items they'd given the baby Jesus had been charmed for protection, intelligence, and compassion. Harry was almost looking forward to Potions, wondering if for once, maybe, Snape had something to teach besides snide sarcasm.

They'd ended up with a potion that was supposed to induce temporary silence, as Snape claimed he hated large, noisy celebrations. It was a bit of a let down, but they'd been expecting it, really. Of course, Harry hadn't been expecting the Eye of Newt which Malfoy had flung across the room and into his cauldron, causing it to bubble over and spill on the table. The potion then ate through the table and caused it to collapse; which made the bubbling potion bounce in its cauldron all the way down to Snape's desk. The potion, as it spilled, caused holes to be eaten into the stone floor. And then it ate through Snapes desk leg; which caused all of his papers to fall to the floor and start to get eaten by the potion before Snape vanished it all and declared with absolute irritation,

"Potter! Detention!"

Of course, since it was the last day before vacation the detention had to be put off until after they got back, but it didn't stop Harry from planning his revenge…

* * *

all next chapter: Holidays!! wooohoo! And the explaination via Remus as to why Snaped hates Harry... (as I mentioned earlier, I had a great confrontation scene between Harry and Snape... next chapter people, next chapter!)

and as to Hermione calling Neville, Neil... "What's New Pussycat" sung by Neil Diamond... just so you know...


	11. Chapter 11

Ok, wow. So my computer crashed, like BIG time. I don't have the ability to replace it with a nice machine at the moment (hopefully in a couple of weeks) so I bought this two hundred dollar teeni-tiny-itsy-bitsy thing that I am just now figuring out. I wrote this entire chapter on this, transcribed from notes I took in a regular notebook... so please forgive me for any typos, because seriously, it's darn hard to edit on this damn thing. On the positive notes, it's better than checking my e-mail on my itouch. So here you go, everything I promised in the last chapter, I think... and more besides. (and yes, thank you for those of you who noted that it was Tom Jones and NOT Neil Diamond who sings "What's New Pussycat." I would go back and change it, but Idon't know how to without taking out the whole damn chapter and loosing my stats. I'm kinda useless that way.)

Anyway, I do not own Harry Potter or Lara Croft/Tomb Raider

* * *

The ride back to Kings Cross Station was relatively uneventful.

Where relatively meant that Malfoy ended up in a school trunk and stuffed in the loo... He'd been in there for about three hours before anyone really noticed he was gone, and somehow had managed to fall asleep. Of course since no one had brought on a school trunk nobody could really be blamed for the mess (no proof) and at the same time the trunk had disappeared. So when he had been found he'd just been sitting on the toilet seat completely knocked out. Harry just smirked, considering all the time he'd worked on conjuring inanimate objects it had been a rather fruitful endeavor; so what if it only existed for a few hours?

At the station he'd immediately met up with Brice and Hillary, since the night before had been a full moon and Lara had a few last minute shopping additions to wrap, and they waited around a bit to meet Hermione's parents. When Hermione stood on tiptoe and started waving Harry strained his eyes to find them. As they got closer he could only grin. Hermione was just a miniature female version of her father.

The man was tall and gangly, large eyeglasses perched precariously on his cute nose, his hair was obviously combed neatly but tended to sproing out in odd places. Her mother, on the other hand, was quite small, but intelligent enough to stay out of the way as Hermione glomped on her father. He wrapped his long arms around his girl and squeezed until she protested the need for air. Her mother just smiled gently, and tugged her daughter into her arms, smoothing back her hair with a slight sigh.

"I've missed you darling," she hugged Hermione again and then shifted until her arm was around Hermione's shoulders. She held out her other hand to Harry.

"Hello, you must be Harry," she smiled as Harry took her hand in a firm grip.  
"Must I?" he asked, earning a snicker from Hermione's father.  
"Hello Harry, I'm Michael Granger, this is my wife, Jean."  
"Drs, this is my nanny Brice, and my butler, Hilary." Harry introduced with a smirk, which earned him a cuff upside the head.  
"I'm Brice, a friend of Harry's aunt," Brice shook Michael's hand. "And Hilary is her butler, not Harry's."  
"Though at times I'm wont to be a bit of both," Hilary scoffed and ruffled Harry's hair in a way he knew Harry particularly disliked.  
The introduction didn't seem to faze the Grangers, so they got on with discussing when on Christmas Eve the family should stop by, and to get directions to the estate.  
"Well, then Harry, it was nice to meet you, and we will see you in about a week," Jean gathered Hermione's hand while her father grabbed her suitcase.  
"See you later Hermione!" Harry waved as the girl walked away, a smile on her face.

* * *

Remus was feeling a bit creaky as Harry bounced into his room. He smiled at the boy as he jumped on the bed, but groaned as the shock wave nudged him a bit.  
"Ouch, bad moon?" Harry asked as he took one of Remus's hands and began a light massage on the joints. Remus sighed as the warmth penetrated. Really, for some reason, the hands got the worst of the aches transforming brought upon him.  
"I'm just a bit late getting up this morning is all," Remus closed his eyes, wondering if he should just go back to sleep.  
"Remus, it's two in the afternoon," Harry smiled as the older mans eyes popped open.  
"Serious?"  
"Yes?" Sirius poked his head in. Remus groaned while Harry giggled.  
"Not you," Harry corrected.  
"Oh? And why NOT me?" Sirius entered the room, and seeing what Harry was doing, took up Remus's other hand.  
"I'm going to get used to this treatment," Remus warned.  
"What treatment?" Hilary asked as he brought in a tea tray and settled it on the side table.  
"Tea in bed? Hand massages? I feel like a pampered princess..." then he groaned at the slip. He didn't even bother to correct himself, Sirius jumped right on in.  
"All right then Princess," he smirked and took the tea mug from Hilary. "One lump or two?"

* * *

Lara rubbed her forehead, she was coming down with a headache and she'd only been listening to Harry explain the broom incident for a few minutes now. She'd received a rather stern letter from a Madame Hooch right before holidays started. The basic letter was a rather bland form letter; letting every parent know that their child had, or had not, passed flying instruction and it was now that first years could bring their brooms to school. But tacked on to the end was a personally written note about how Harry's ability to stay afloat was remarkable considering the boy scoffed at each lesson (actually, more acurately the boys talking about Quidditch). Apparently his attitude left much to be desired.

Lara could understand, unfortunately, and because she understood she couldn't punish Harry harshly for being such a snot.

Remus had Harry up on a broom very early, so the boy knew how to use one and he was very good at it from all accounts. Then he'd begged for more stories about his father and Quidditch, and he seemed to enjoy them. He liked zipping around on a broom, he liked heights, and most of all he liked falling from heights and stopping so close to the ground he almost gave Lara a heart attack each time. Remus laughed and called it a Wronski Feint… whatever that meant.

Then it had happened. Remus, thinking it would be good for the boys to see more wizarding activity's, had taken them to an actual Quidditch match.

It was brutal.

Harry had started to watch with a cynics eye, wondering why anyone would put themselves through such pain for a sport. Four players suffered broken appendages (having them quickly set and mended only to jump right back on their brooms and continue on) while three were knocked out entirely unable to be revived. Alternates jumped in, enthusiastic and just as prone to injury. The match lasted seven hours, because nobody could catch the Snitch, it seemed. But Harry had only watched the first three, and then convinced Remus to take them home. He couldn't understand why his father liked such a brutal sport, and how Remus could make it seem like it wasn't that bad. That's when Remus explained that in school, it really wasn't. The bludgers were charmed for players protection, and the children playing it, while competitive, were not playing as their jobs. To them it was stress relief. That, at least, was how James looked at it. He enjoyed it because it was physical and he looked good doing it. That last comment earned him a sardonic eye roll, but the topic had been shelved. That was when Harry really started to get into Parkour. He had said a few times in Lara's hearing that if he got hurt, at least he only had himself to blame and not an insane flying bowling ball.

That's not to say he didn't enjoy the act of flying itself, he just hated being pushed into something he didn't want to do.

Apparently McGonagall had watched their class trying out the school brooms under Madame Hooch's stern glare, and decided that Harry, after he swooped around on a decrepit old school broom better than anyone ever had before, had to be on his house Quidditch team. She and Madame Hooch had taken personal offense when he told them to go screw themselves…

"Oh, come on! It's not like they knew what I was talking about!"

And while she couldn't punish him for not joining a sport he had a moral (and as he pointed out, intellegent) objection to, she could punish him for telling off a teacher. Though apparently they'd assigned him detention, knowing that he was being impertinent, but not quite understanding how.

So she decided to stay out of this one. Some things were just not meant for a "normal muggle" to understand.

* * *

The week before Christmas was spent buying presents and hiding them around the mansion so no one could peak. Closets were obvious spaces, so they tended to end up in considerably weird places, causing Hilary to scream about odd shaped parcels in his fridge.

Christmas Eve woke with delightful smells originating from the kitchen and the warning of immediate beheading to anyone who stepped foot in the general vicinity without an invitation… Christmas Eve dinner was Hilary's art.

Hermione and her parents arrived soon after Neville and his grandmother. Neville disappeared immediately into the greenhouse, where he'd spent most of his time since vacation started, and his grandmother joined Remus in showing off the mansion. She took over the tour when it was obvious that Hermione was entranced by the Library, and started asking Remus extensive questions.

"Basically, Hermione," Remus said after she asked why Harry and Neville were so different from the other pure bloods in school. "The reason why Harry and Neville seem to be better at magic than their yearmates is that, really, they are." Remus moved over to the library's shelves as Hermione sat with a wide open mouth. She was upset, and more than a little confused at the simple honesty in Remus's response. He started pulling down heavy journals and set them at the long table Hermione sat at.

"I've been tutoring them for years. They know theory, which is something that Binns is supposed to teach. But even if the old ghost remembered, curriculum is actually very basic. Neville and Harry know theory, especially magic theory, very well." He reached for one final journal and flipped it open to a bookmarked page.

"Earth Magic and it's Various Property's as it Applys to Personal Energy's and Magical Core Relief." Hermione read outloud, "Neville Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter." She blinked for a second, then flipped to the copyright page. "Remus, this was written four years ago."

"Yes, it was. This is the result of one of our round robin discussions. I gave the boys a question. I asked them, "Where does magic come from?" This was their response."

"Oh… Wow." Her eyes skipped over to the four other volumes Remus had pulled.

"There is an article in each journal, All theory discussions. Harry and Neville helped me publish all of them."

"I haven't seen anything like this in the Hogwart's Library," she mused as she pulled the open one closer. "I've looked."

"Well, Hermione, that would be because the Hogwart's Library does not cover "philisophical discussions" as some of the previous Headmasters have refered to research journals as. Only published works by "credible authors." Of course, how credible can they be when they have Lockharts crap in there?" he asked himself, obviously forgetting about Hermione sitting right there.

"Lockhart?" Hermione asked. Remus shook his head and waved the question away.

"Sorry, bit of a personality clash with that man, nevermind it."

"Well, then," Hermione settled for a bit then looked up at the older man. "Where does magic come from?" Remus just smiled.

"Here's a question for you Hermione. Have you ever had a light lunch at Hogwarts?"

Hermione paused for a second, thinking. Then she frowned.

"No, actually, I eat like a pig."

"Have you gained any weight?" Remus just chuckled at her glare, but didn't look away.

"No," Hermione admitted. "In fact mum was worried I wasn't eating enough. Apparently I've lost ten pounds."

"You will never see an obese wizard, unless they are incredibly opulent or don't use enough magic," He stated. "On the other hand, if you don't use strength training then you won't be fat, but you also won't develop any muscle," Remus shrugged. "Wizards are pretty weak individuals. That's why Harry is so hyper. He not only eats his weight every day, but he exersizes, which pumps up his metabolism, which gives him extra energy to burn. Also, a good way to get more energy is wizarding candy. Like Honeydukes chocolate, it's specially formulated."

"Is that why Harry's always sucking on Dumbledores lemon drops when he offers them?"

Remus nodded, "Most likely. Dumbledore is an old wizard Hermione. He has access to magics I can't even dream of. Not to mention his familiar is a phoenix, so that's got to drain him a bit."

"A phoenix? Really? Wow!" Hermione grinned.

"Wow what?" Harry ducked his head into the Library and entered the room when the other two turned to look at him. He flopped onto the couch, obviously relaxing after doing something strenuous as Hermione could see the sweat beading his forehead.

"I was just telling Hermione about Fawkes."

"That flaming turkey?" he grinned at the outraged expression on his classmates face. "Yeah, he's ok."

"Harry, do your exersizes," Remus interupted before she could declare war.

"But I already did them today!" Harry lifted his arm and indicated the sweat stains on his shirt. "Or do you think I just needed a good run through the sprinklers?"

"Do them again, I want Hermione to start them as well."

"Fine," Harry muttered. "But I get two pieces of cake for dessert tonight and YOU have to tell Aunt Lara why."

"Just do them."

Harry sat up and concentrated until his red ball formed in his palm. He set it down in his lap and conjured two more, one in each hand. Picking the other up as he stood (so he had two in one hand) he began to toss them into the air, juggling the three balls carefully.

After about a minute the balls changed colors. One blue, one green, the last yellow, then they began cycling through other colors, constantly changing. After a few minutes of that they began changing size, then shape, and then Harry just dropped his hands and let three perfectly round balls float in midair. They flickered like fireflys.

Hermione just watched as Harry started to pant, his forehead now dripping with sweat, but the balls did not waver his concentration complete. Finally Remus nodded and Harry let the balls drop, making them dissapear cms away from hitting the floor. He collapsed back on the couch and muttered something about taking a nap.

"Nope," Remus shook his head cheerfully. "Walk it off." He pulled Harry to his feet and waited until his glareing pupil had left the room, muttering under his breath the entire time about turning Remus into a fireplace rug. The entire episode had taken about ten minutes from Harry entering the room to Harry leaving it.

He'd been energetic before, and almost completely wiped out after.

"See? It takes energy. Of course, wandless magic takes more. That's why it's so hard to use until your core is stronger."

"But isn't accidental magic considered wandless?" Hermione asked, her famed brain finally kicking in.

"Yes and no," Remus sat down across from her and smiled gently. "Accidental magic happens in times of great stress. As you get older your body can handle more and more magic. So it builds up in your system until you become… I guess the best analogy is a bottle filled with soda. You hold magic inside, like a liquid, until you shake it up and the pressure pops the cork. In an emergency it pops out to protect you. Then it takes a little while for it to recharge. Like a muscle, if you strain it, you have to take it easy for a bit until you can use it again."

***

As they continued to talk Neville started laughing, he was still irritated that Harry had dragged him out from the greenhouse, but this really was priceless. Harry was just standing there, slumping a bit as he was tired, but with a hint of humor in his pose. Out in the safety of the hallway Neville looked back at the couple exchanging notes on magic, and the utter look of pure adoration on Hermione's face.

"I think," Harry stated with a little chuckle. "I think Hermione's got a bit of a crush on Remus."

* * *

Dinner, of course, was a masterpiece. It started with a simple salad with homemade dressing and roasted pine nuts, then came Roasted duck in a cranberry sauce served with a wild rice mixture that Hilary assured them all was a secret recipe. Then came the green beans and dumplings, and something Hilary called fuzzy noodles (a recipe that he'd stolen liberally from his grandmother) along with sautéed mushrooms and a salmon bun that he'd come up with off the top of his head. Even before dessert was served Mrs. Longbottom was once again threatening to steal Hilary away and lock him in her kitchen, even though he was a muggle.

Harry got two slices of chocolate cake, appropriately named "Chocolate Sin" considering it had three layers of cake, smothered in chocolate buttermilk icing and topped with melted fudge and sprinkles. He also sneaked a slice of cherry cheesecake that Hilary made just in case someone didn't feel like ending their dinner with such decadence. Even the Grangers had dessert, allowing that as long as Hermione brushed very carefully when they got home. After all Christmas is special.

Hermione declared herself stuffed, and shared a look with Remus. Apparently she had a few things to go over with her parents about energy requirements and healthy teeth habits.

* * *

The Grangers left the house with full tummys and a promise to be back for New Years eve, while Neville and his grandmother went to their guest suites to wait for Christmas morning. Lara, Sirius and Brice helped Hilary clean up the dining room and kitchen while Remus took Harry upstairs for a tradition they'd started before Harry really even understood what Remus was saying. A bedtime chat, and Remus had to tell the truth, every time. The first one of these was Remus pouring out his heart about how much he missed Harry's parents. And each year they continued, it didn't matter what about, as long as it was true.

"Remus, I know it's not really a topic you want to get into but…" Harry took a breath and gathered all the courage he had. Remus had warned him before going off to school that some people wouldn't like him, for no reason really. But this one had a reason, and he wanted to know it.

"Will you tell me what's up with Snape?"

Remus pulled back Harry's covers and sat on the edge of the bed as Harry situated himself.

"It's not Snape's fault, so much as… well," Remus sighed. "I don't know why your father hated Snape so much. I have conjecture, but that's all it is. I never asked… For Sirius it was enough that Snape was a Slytherin and that his brother looked up to the man. He missed his brother, so it took it all out on all the Slytherins, especially the one he felt had taken his place. Your father, however, I think he was afraid."

"Afraid?"

"Yes, you see, your mother and Severus grew up together."

"Really?"

"Yes. She used to tell me that they would meet in the park and just run around together. As they got older I believe that your father realized that Severus was his competition for your mother, so he retaliated in the only way he could. He showed off his skill. Not many adults can levitate a man, or even a skinny teenager. Your father could by the time he was fifteen."

"Ok, I understand the jealousy part and all that. I understand why Sirius didn't step in, but why didn't you stop it?"

"I was terrified Harry." Remus admitted, looking down at his hands.

"Why?"

"I didn't want them to turn on me, to treat me the same way… I'm a werewolf Harry. James and Sirius were my first and only true friends. I was always afraid they'd wake up one day, realize that they'd been friends with a freak, and shun me. Push me aside…" His voice broke and he tried not to look at Harry. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then gasped out as Harry threw himself into a hug, his arms wrapped around the were's torso.

"I love you Moony," he said simply, not realizing that James used to do the exact same thing.

"What's this then?" Brice's familiar voice rang out.

"Moony hug!" Sirius laughed and threw himself across the room, barreling into the embrace with enthusiasm, squishing Harry between them.

"Looney's, all of you," Lara shook her head as they held tight, one of Remus's hands on Harry's shoulder, his other arm wrapped around his taller friend.

"Come on!" Sirius urged. "You have to get in on this! You get happy tingles for days!"

* * *

Christmas came and went, Neville and Harry each got brooms (amongst other things) now that they'd taken the courses and passed, allowed to bring them to school for weekend "tomfoolery" as Madame Hooch had put it. New Years was celebrated with copious amounts of wine for the adults and sparkling cider for the kids. And before they knew it, once again, it was time to meet at Kings Cross Station for the Hogwarts Express.

Harry and Neville shared their booth with Hermione and a fourth year Hufflepuff who didn't want to spend the ride alone, but had no friends on the train. That resulted in a lot of discussion about house loyalty, seeing as how it was one of the 'Puffs greatest traits and the other three were curious. Of course some of the answers they got consisted of, "you're not 'Puffs, if I told you I'd have to kill you… and that'd be a shame." She winked a lot though, so they weren't entirely sure if she was kidding or not.

The first week back was rather mundane, just review to get ready for starting new subjects and a few boring chapters read for homework. Then came Saturday, and Harry's detention with Snape.

He walked into the room prepared to do battle, but was deflated as Snape just handed him a scrub brush and told him to get to work. After an hour Harry paused and looked over at his teacher. Professor Snape was grading papers, obviously pissed as his quill was scratching entire sentences from the poor students work.

"Remus explained to me, Sir, why it is you hate me," Harry heard himself say.

"Enlighten me, Potter," Snape growled without looking up from the paper.

"My father was an utter prat."

"Agreed," Snapes only emotional reaction was a lifted eyebrow. He was waiting for more.

"And if you don't mind me saying, Sir," he had to get all the "Sirs" out that he could. It was Hermione's suggestion. "I think it's a bullshit reason."

"How so Mr. Potter?" that was a good sign. Usually he just called Harry "Potter". Maybe he was loosening up? He looked straight at Harry, his eyes dark and closed.

"Because the ass wipe that was my father is no longer here. I am here, Sir, and I would like to be judged on my own merits."

Snape was quiet for a minute, looked back down at the paper he'd been scowling at, crossed out another line and looked back up. "Very well Mr. Potter, you are dismissed."

Harry stood, still confused as to what had just happened, but willing to take the early out.

"Oh, and one more thing," Snape's lip twitched in something that might have been termed a smile if half his face was paralyzed.

"Yes Professor?"

"Cease to swear in my class room unless you have a miraculous breakthrough or, more likely, you are about to blow something up."

"Yes Sir."

"Dismissed."

* * *

AND THATS THAT! You know, that scene with Snape was the very first thing I wrote for this fic. I didn't even know which fic it was going in, but this one seemed to fit. Originally I had it for later in the series, after Harry saw into Snape's pensieve... but I liked it here. I felt it would be an automatic NO for Harry to go into second year if he truly hated one of his teachers and that teacher truly hated him. Now it's more of a maybe...

I still don't know what I'm going to do with the next chapter, but hopefully this will hold you over for a while... And before anyone asks, i didn't forget about the cloak. you'll find out later. ;-P

also, i made myself hungry detailing the dinner, so the fuzzy noodles just popped out... thinking about grandma's sunday dinner... hmm.. pot roast, fuzzy noodles and green beans... fuzzy noodles, just so you know, are made from left over mashed potatoes and cream of wheat. I know it sounds odd... but good gods you have to try it to believe it.


	12. Chapter 12

OK- I got a PM about the Philosopher's Stone… basically it asked what it was and how ridiculous was it that the chocolate frog card said that Dumbledore helped make it when in my story it didn't even exist? To that end I ask you- how could Dumbledore help make it when he is a third of the Flamel's ages in the first place? They are not contemporaries, the Flamels were born in the 1300's (?) I believe, Dumbledore in the 1800's…

And I promised an update on this story this weekend, and this is what came out… . This is what popped. I know it's a bit ridiculous, but I had the amazing opportunity to listen (I say listen because it's on repeat across the lobby at work in the kids area) to 'The Little Mermaid' for the past week. (Every time I hear Ariel with the Sea Witch my pharmacist and I yelp, "Don't do it Ariel! Don't give her your voice!) And I adore that stupid bird!

* * *

"Is there anything you can't do?" Ron snapped out as Harry demonstrated a freezing charm to a couple of classmates who were having a hard time (Ron included).

"I can't sing," Harry replied with a straight face.

"Oh, come now!" Ron protested, indignant at getting a brush off.

"No, really, Harry's tone deaf," Neville explained. The Gryffindor was lounging on the couch, reading the muggle newspaper, 'London Times'.

"Tone deaf?" the red head asked, never having heard that term before.

"I can't distinguish between music notes within a few steps of each other. I learned to keep my mouth shut after my aunt recorded me belting out 'The Beatles'."

"I've never listened to 'Yellow Submarine' the same since then," Neville chuckled behind the Arts and Leisure section.

"Neville here though, he's a pro." Harry replied with a smirk.

"Harry…" Neville warned.

"No, seriously, he even plays guitar. Why don't you go up and get it Neville, show these wizard kids what they're missing?" Harry's expression clearly stated that turn-about was fair play.

"Yes, please, I haven't heard any good music since…" Hermione had to pause and think about it. "Well, since whenever. Wizard radio just doesn't cut it." She shrugged at the protests coming from all around her.

"I'm not that good," Neville protested.

"Nonsense," Harry smirked as he held out an acoustic guitar, he'd gotten it from Neville's trunk as Hermione distracted him. "You're good at a lot of things, Herbology and guitar just to name a couple."

"If you don't start I'll get everyone to chant your name in encouragement." Hermione threatened.

"Damn you Harry Potter, for bringing this up," Neville scowled at his friend, but obligingly settled the guitar on his knee and arranged his hands naturally on the neck and box over the strings. In no time at all he was strumming gently, with every evidence of talent.

"Hello/ I've waited here for you/ Everlong

Tonight, I throw myself into/ Out of the red/ Out of her head she sang," He closed his eyes, this eleven year old boy, and had most of the girls in the common room breaking their hearts over him. Most of them had never heard that song before, being witches/wizards born and bred, or just from London, unaware of American music for the most part. But Hermione knew the song and started humming along, harmonizing on the chorus where it did the most good for the simple and haunting melody.

Harry refrained himself from joining in, as he might have done at home, because he seriously was tone-deaf when it came to his own singing. That didn't mean he couldn't appreciate his friends talents. Neville had always been a steadying influence on him, one that held him back when he desperately wished to jump in head first. He had been expecting his friend to end up in Hufflepuff due to that fact, but when the hat pronounced them both Gryffindor he'd almost smiled hard enough to split his head in half.

He honestly didn't know what he'd have done if the hat had placed him in Slytherin like it'd threatened, and he really didn't know what it was in his personality that made the Sorting Hat think he'd do well there. He reached up absently to rub at his scar, like he did whenever something puzzled him, and scowled when he saw a few classmates watching him, hoping for a glimpse. Some of them blushed, caught and embarrassed about staring, while others just shrugged like it was their right to be nosy like that. As Neville finished up Everlong he was cajoled into singing another, and this time he just sighed and started strumming, not even bothering to protest.

"I swallow my nose/ Crinkle up my toes

Wherever I goes/ Nobody knows

I make me smile/ Don't stay for a while

Now, Just take my time/ Wherever it grows!"

"Neville! Those aren't the lyrics!" Hermione started laughing as the other students stared at the boy in concern.

"Well I happen to think they make more sense! I mean, really!" Neville almost delivered that with a straight face, but broke down in mad giggling as Hermione punched his arm playfully.

"No they don't!"

"Well I'm not silly enough to sing it, so I'll just put my guitar away then, shall I?" Neville started to stand, but was more amused than exasperated (though that second feeling didn't trail very much) when the other students protested. They wanted the real song. Harry looked up and realized that anyone who'd been in their room previously was now in the common room, or sitting on the stairs. Nobody in Gryffindor tower was going to miss this.

"Get Hermione to sing it," Harry suggested, then smiled as the bushy-haired girl blushed.

"Yeah, she obviously knows it if she caught you out that easily!" Ron put in, flinching back a little at the girls sudden glare.

There really was nothing to it now, they had to perform or the whole house would be in an uproar. Neville shrugged, game for it if Hermione was. She nodded hesitantly, closing the open book on Goblin Wars that had been in her lap. She settled a bit and took a few deep breaths as Neville strummed the opening bars.

"I've been awake for a while now/ You make me feel like a child now,

Cause every time I see your bubbly face/ I get the tingles in a silly place.

It starts in my toes/ Makes me crinkle my nose/ Wherever it goes/ I always know,

That you make me smile/ Please stay for a while now/ Just take your time/ Wherever you go." As she sang Harry had to congratulate himself. Getting that girl to crawl out of her shell had started as a long and arduous project. He had noticed that in a house noted for its outgoing personalities she tended to melt into the woodwork. Like Neville, in Harry's opinion, she seemed suited for a different house, Ravenclaw perhaps. But a little work and she'd blossomed spectacularly, shocking the hell out of him when she stood up to the pretentious Malfoy-git during potions the other day.

_The bleach-brained Slytherin had, once again, called her a mud-blood, causing Neville to clutch the back of Harry's robe as the black haired furry lunged forward to make Malfoy eat his fist. At first Hermione ignored the struggle going on behind her but, before even Harry was aware of what she'd done, Malfoy's cauldron started bubbling and emitting noxious fumes. Soon every area of skin that had been exposed to the steam turned a lovely shade of bright yellow. As Harry stared he hadn't really noticed, but the fumes started to spread around the room until the entire place smelled of rotten eggs. Snape burst out of his office and glared at the day-glo wizard with the smoldering cauldron. _

"_Mr. Malfoy! Nowhere in the potions list does it call for tubeworms! Where did you even get that?" And without further ado he'd grabbed Draco's ear and started hauling him from the classroom, the nasty smell of rotting eggs following him out. _

_The entire class was still in disbelief, staring at Hermione who had a small smirk on her lips. "Well," she sighed. "I think that concludes today's class." And, not betraying a bit of guilt, she bottled up her perfect potion, labeled it and left it on Snape's desk. Then, with no fuss she grabbed a small bottle from Draco's potions ingredients and replaced it with an empty one of her own before packing up and leaving the classroom. _

"_Damn," Harry whispered, full of awe and just plain admiration._

"_Harry," Neville sighed as he followed Hermione's example and bottled up his potion. "I think you've created a monster." _

"_No," Harry disagreed. "I didn't create her," he mirrored Neville's actions and handed the completed bottle to Neville to place on Snape's desk, which seemed to bolster the rest of the room to action. With a smile he sighed, "I just set her free." _

As Hermione and Neville finished up their song Harry could only sit and smile at the memory. Maybe the hat did know what it was doing after all, setting all of them together so that they could grow like they had.

The rest of the night pretty much followed like it had started, more and more people getting into the act as they discovered which ones could sing and which kids couldn't. They even managed to get Harry to hack out a song… well part of a song. Most of the room protested as he butchered a well known and well loved 'Wryd Sisters' tune.

And in the morning, if most teachers noticed a lot of yawning from the Gryffindor table, at least nobody was bleeding.

* * *

First song, Everlong by Foo Fighters, Second Bubbly by Colbie Caillat


	13. Chapter 13

I know I've kept you waiting, and I'm really, really sorry! I hope you like this chapter, as it helps me to keep my thought process neat... It helped me settle alot of things, like whether or not Harry is coming back for a second year at Hogwarts, which you don't get to know now, but it settled the issue in my own head. I know the match challenge is out of order, but I could have sworn it was in the last half of the book not the first- which now that i've unearthed my copy I realize has been in grave error... as is almost everything considering I thought almost everything of import happened after christmas... I'm just an idiot, and you'll just have to explain it away as it being AU, not wholey cannon.

Anyway, thanks for reading, these characters do not belong to me and I make no money off of them.

Enjoy!

* * *

"That's it! I absolutely refuse!" Harry stood from the bench, his hands flat on the table as he glared across at Draco Malfoy.

"Refuse what you little coward?" Draco sneered. "I just challenged you to a match and you refuse?"

"Not only to the match, Draco, but to everything. I'm not going to fight you anymore. In fact, to me, you don't even exist." Harry just smirked slightly and sat back down, continuing his conversation with Hermione about hair frizz potions

"What?" Draco took a step back and flung a few insults. He even called Granger a mud blood, and Potter didn't flinch!

"So do you really think that serum would work? You know I just have a terrible time trying to get it to lay flat."

"As long as you enhance it with moon flowers I don't see why not," Hermione nodded. "I've been trying to tweak what's available for my own mop and it's starting to work!" She pulled her hair from her perpetual pony-tail and let him examine the difference. It was much silkier than it had been when she first arrived.

The pair ignored Malfoy as his face turned red and he stalked away.

"Do you really think that's a good idea mate?" Ron leaned over the table as the Slytherin left the Great Hall.

"Well, one of three," Harry shrugged.

"What does that mean?"

"It means Malfoy's got one of three decisions to make right now. One, he could continue trying to torment me and get nothing but a headache for his efforts. Two, he could escalate his attacks and come after me physically or with magic, which would get him expelled. Or three, he could give up and leave me alone. At this point, I win."

"That is remarkably mature Harry," Ron's brother, the Prefect Percy overheard. He nodded, finally proud that someone in his house could solve his problems by rational intercourse. "Five points to Gryffindor!" Now that he had something to gloat about to the other Prefects he was going to milk it all the way, so he quickly disappeared to spread that his house was finally thinking for once!

"Of course if that fails for some reason," Harry shrugged reasonably, "I could always coat his bed in flobberworms."

* * *

"AH!" the startled scream along with the hurried apologies caught the attention of most of the hallway. When the students looked over most of them smirked and continued onto the next class. Once again Harry had vaulted over a railing and nearly landed on someone's head. The only difference was that this time it was a teacher.

"Sorry Professor Quirrell!" Harry hurried as he started picking up the books the Professor had dropped.

"N-no, tha-a-atss p-p-p-p fine! I will see you in c-classs then?" He stammered out, accepting his books back from Harry and hissing as their hands almost contacted. He backed up and steered around Harry with a very wide berth.

After a few minutes had passed and the hallway was deserted Harry looked into the corner where his partner in crime was hiding in the shadows.

"So?" he asked.

"It's in there," was the reply.

"Maybe now we'll find why he's so nervous. Aunt Lara said he never had been before. She called him charming and didn't add on the obligatory, "for such a bastard", that she does for most men."

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Don't you know me well enough by now?" Harry grinned, "I always want to know."

* * *

"Hagrid said there's something killing unicorns in the forest," Hermione said as she joined her year mates for lunch.

"Unicorns?"

"Yes," she started to put together a club sandwich as Harry poured her juice, eager for more details. "Why are you so interested anyway?" she asked, suspicious.

"We've got a puzzle Hermione, and I'm counting on you to help me put it together," he confided. "War council tonight, common room. We'll go through the evidence then, but I need your assistance," he added knowing she would want to prepare. "Write down every odd thing that's happened this year."

"Harry, I'm muggle-born. Everything has been weird." She confessed wryly, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"No, I don't mean magically. Just things that have seemed out of place. Like a party hat on a snake or something. Anything that left a niggling thought of, "gosh is that normal, I'll have to look it up later." You know what I mean?"

"There may have been a few incidences."

"Good, write them down, bring them to the meeting. Eight o'clock."

* * *

"So, did you get it?" Harry asked as a couple of red heads passed him in the hall.

"As always-"

"My good man."

"And you contacted your brother?"

"The shipping details have been seen to-"

"He knows what's coming and he's rife with questions…"

"I don't care what you tell him, as long as the Professors' don't butt in."

"Not possible-"

"Darling Firstie-"

"We know you haven't been here long-"

"But already you should know-"

"We always get away with it."

* * *

The Gryffindor common room was once again packed, students sat on the stairs, on the floor, even on the end tables in order to listen and perhaps contribute to the discussion.

Number one on Harry's list, and really the only bullet point for the meeting, was simple in the extreme.

"What's wrong with this year?" He asked, to the mass confusion of everyone in the room.

"Harry, more specific, less abstract," Neville nudged his friend.

"All right then. It's been noted, that in not less than four instances, students have been put into extremely dangerous circumstances, is this normal?"

"What do you mean by "dangerous circumstances" Harry?" Hermione wondered if his list matched with hers.

"First off, start of term, Dumbledore announced that the third floor corridor was off limits to any who, and I quote " does not wish to die a very painful death," end quote." Harry shrugged, "Is that normal?" he asked the higher levels gathered round.

"No," Percy replied for them all. "We've never had that kind of warning inside the school, just the Forbidden Forest."

"That's another thing, It's a forest next to a school, why is it filled with dangerous magical creatures that want to eat children? And we've all heard the rumors from that detention Malfoy got himself thinking he was tracking me outside the tower after curfew. Cut out the parts were he miraculously saved a bleeding unicorn all by himself, and it's feasible. In fact, I got the twins to get the entire story out of Hagrid," He motioned to the Weasley twins to take over.

"Basically Hagrid had Malfoy take Fang out to search for a wounded unicorn-"

"He knew there was one around-"

"So they split up-"

"Hagrid going one way, Fang and Malfoy the other."

"Malfoy found the unicorn-"

"But also what injured it. A big, black shadow-"

"Is all the information Hagrid could shake-"

"From a traumatized Malfoy. It ran away without confrontation."

"So, that's what really happened, and while the twins were down at Hagrid's hut they discovered something else, if you would continue?" Harry started to indicate the twins, but was interrupted by Hermione.

"Please, just sum up Harry. It's not that I don't find the Fred and George act charming," she smirked at their leering grins. "But bouncing between them makes my brain tired."

"All right, they found a dragon's egg."

"That's illegal," Percy started.

"Don't worry-"

"Oh stuffed shirt-"

"We called Charlie-"

"Shipped it to him for safe keeping."

"Oh, well, good job then," Percy relaxed, causing the rest of the tower to relax with him. Baby dragons were dangerous creatures, of course Hagrid would want one for a pet.

"Anyway, back to the odd part,"

"That's not the odd part? Hagrid had a dragon's egg!" Seamus exclaimed.

"Yes, and that is the odd part, where did he get it?"

"Ah," Ron just shook his head after a second of contemplation. "You can't get them in England, or Scotland. It's not possible unless you've got underground contacts, like the Dwarfs…" He blinked as he noticed everyone staring at him. "What? I pay attention to dad sometimes too, you know!"

"So the twins got the story out of Hagrid that he got the egg from a friendly fellow at the bar who in return got a famous Hagrid slip of the tongue. Hagrid accidentally let it out where the Philosophers stone is currently hidden, and just what is guarding it. Namely,"

"Fluffy!" Hermione jumped up. "This coincides with my list rather well Harry, which I assume you'd thought of and just wanted confirmation that you weren't the only one connecting the dots, as it were."

"Exactly Hermione," Harry smiled at her.

"Merlin, get a room already," Hermione blushed at Ron's muttered comment. Harry ignored it to get to the next point on his list.

"So the bad guy knows the first trap, which is Fluffy, and knows how to get around the dog, which we all know by now is playing it music. Which means our evil git is not Snape, no matter how much we might wish it."

"Yes, his leg was chewed up, he didn't know how to bypass Fluffy!" Hermione put in, "Which means our suspect pool has gotten shorter and more unreliable. At this point, it really could be anyone."

"But that's not the last of it," Harry mused. "The troll, that's really the other thing that bothers me. How did it get in to the castle?"

"You suspect Quirrell?" Wood asked.

"Why? Do you?"

"I saw him just before the feast. He was the only one not in the Great Hall during dinner, and before it he was disappearing into the dungeons."

"All right, that dovetails nicely into my theory."

"Which is?" Angelina asked straight out, tired of the runaround.

"Something's taken over Quirrell."

Harry had to shout down a lot of objections, many of the students couldn't see how the ineffectual teacher was actually a criminal mastermind. It was explained, by a few upperclassmen to the younger set, that one way of getting a stupid kid to follow you was to offer it candy and be nice, unthreatening. That seemed to mollify them, none of the Gryffindor set were exactly brain dead, though some might act it sometimes.

He explained how Quirrell had been before his teaching career at Hogwarts, and the students where shocked when he told them how competent the man had been not that long ago. None of them had seen the man Harry was describing to them.

"Then, the other thing, he refuses to touch me, and I keep getting twinges in my scar when his back is to me."

That pronouncment met with an eerie silence.

"What?"

"You got that scar from the Dark Lord Harry. Why would Quirrell make it twinge?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know, maybe it's an all-purpose evil detector?"

"Let's shelve that for now, and get on with what to do next. Do we tell McGonagall?"

"We don't have any proof, of anything."

"I thought that's what this meeting was about?"

"No, it's supposition. We've got to have something more solid to accuse a teacher of being evil."

"So we watch him."

The entire tower got caught up in the Quirrell matter, debating how to watch him to the fullest effects. Hermione, Neville and Harry stayed out of the conversation for the most part, while Harry looked over Hermione's list. He was right, they looked a lot alike, except…

"Hermione, why are you asking about Malfoy being a right git to me? We just don't like each other, that's all."

"Harry, stop, think about it. Every child in the Wizarding world knows who you are. Why would Malfoy deliberately antagonize you when it could further his career, down the road, if he were nice to you and was your friend? Isn't he a Slytherin? Isn't he supposed to be thinking about this stuff?"

"Yeah, but he's also an arrogant little toe-rag who thinks that his father will give him everything he wants, including respect. I'd admit it was odd if he wasn't a spoiled rotten brat."

"I guess."

"And one more thing, the muggle education point you've got at the end? Why do you think they would teach that to a bunch of kids who they want to keep in the Wizarding world? They want to keep everyone dependant on their wands so that their tradition and history doesn't disappear completely. Think about it, if you could learn magic in a muggle school, would you still come to Hogwarts?"

"Most likely not," Hermione admitted. "If they taught magic in a muggle school, but not maths and science in Hogwarts I wouldn't find that a proper use of my time. But I need to learn magic or I could be a danger to others, while I can take summer courses for my compulsory education and not really miss out on anything. Of course I have to thank you for getting me signed up for home schooling like yourself and Neville, I don't know why I didn't think of that before I saw you doing your coursework down here."

"You're welcome," Neville grinned. "Those were good points Hermione, I'm sure that will factor into Harry's decision for next year."

"Next year?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"I don't know if I'll be coming back next year," he announced to her utter shock.

"But-"

"It's not that this isn't a lovely place and chock full of knowledge Mione," Harry hugged her shoulders, unconsciously calling her the nickname he'd only really called her in his head as she blushed at the physical contact. "But I miss my Aunt, and debates with Remus. Hilary's cooking… I don't know, I really think eleven is too young to be away from my family for over three fourths of the year. I don't know if I like Hogwarts enough to do this again. My Aunt made me promise I'd try it for one year… that deadline is coming up and I'm just confused right now."

They stayed silent for a while as the debate between their classmates came to a close.

They'd keep an eye on Quirrell. Anything that was odd would be reported to Hermione, who would keep a file, and if they got anything incriminating they'd take to whole thing to McGonagall.

Hermione agreed to her role almost absently, still thinking about the bombshell Harry dropped. He was her first friend, he couldn't leave her now! Hopefully, she mused as she got ready for bed later that night, hopefully he'd give her a chance to change his mind.


	14. Chapter 14

We are going a bit back in time just because it's an idea I had for a while but never incorperated... now you'll see how Harry and Hermione started to really become friends... More A/N at the end- enjoy

I do not own Harry Potter or Tomb Raider... though it would be nice if I did.

* * *

_November-_

_Let's get retarded in here…_

Harry sighed as he stretched, shoving his arms out in front of him, shrugging his shoulders, hitching his head from left to right, the cracks telling him that he'd way too much tension in his neck. He turned back to the door and knelt down to press play on his cd player. His work out mix tape filled the cavernous room, Nothing was in his way, just a flat surface that echoed into darkness somewhere beyond him. The Room of Requirement was a curious thing, on several occasions he'd set up obstacles and even made a lake once. He'd gotten odd looks on his way back to the dorm, his hair dripping on the stone corridors.

For now, though, all he needed was a room with a high ceiling and plenty of space. He took off running, a deep breath, then he started tumbling. Flips, twists, landing on one foot and kicking high, going into katas and abandoning them halfway through. He followed the beats of the music that filled him. Mostly club tunes, remixes, heavy beats and soft melodies made an odd yet complimentary blend.

_Ladies and Gentlemen, broadcasting live… The first day of the rest of my life… Ya'll keep the spotlight…_

He ignored the door as it opened and let in a friend. He just continued, unrelenting, trying to work out his problem.

Hermione just sat up against the wall near the door and watched. She'd sometimes come and do homework, listening to the muggle music as he drudged out whatever it was he needed to think on. This time she was just watching. She waited until he paused, in between songs, his breath a bit heavy.

"Teach me," she asked. Her voice quiet, but still heard as the next song began.

"Teach you what?" Harry asked, even though he had a good idea what it was she wanted. She just looked at him, the answer was hanging in the air between them.

_Me I'm superfly…. I can't stand the rain…When the rain hits my window… _

"Stand up," he frowned as she stood and walked over. First thing, balance. She stopped in front of him and was just not ready when he shoved her. She went down with an oof and a glare.

"What was that for?"

"We've got some work to do…"

_December-_

_Let me talk to 'em… Shorty had them apple bottom jeans… She hit the floor…_

Harry grinned as Hermione finished her combination tumble. She'd taken to gymnastics like a duck to water, maybe he'd teach her some more advanced stuff, take her through the school and it's ever changing hallways, play some Parkour…

He slapped away her fist as she shot out and attacked. She was not as good at the fighting aspect, he smirked and pressed forward, working out some kink in her arm as he pulled it forward. She huffed a bit, noticing the correction and making the resolution to never do that again. They very rarely talked during the sessions. For some reason they both worked better when he showed her something and she emulated, only having him correct her by pressing down or up on an appendage.

_I'm the type of girl to look you dead in the eye-eye… We ain't here to hurt nobody… _

She was having fun during the school break. Christmas dinner was amazing and she'd gotten so excited during her talks with Remus. Harry never really had a friend who was a girl before, and he was trying to figure out why Hermione was so different, why he felt so comfortable around her. Hermione was just a sponge, soaking up knowledge and skills with an uncanny ability. After Remus had him showing Hermione his wandless exercises she'd figured out how to make a small ball in the palm of her hand. She couldn't do anything with it yet, it was still stuck to her hand, but Harry had faith in her ability to figure the rest out quickly.

_I'm trying to help… flash that buttery gold, jittery zeitgeist, wither by the watering hole… and I will remember your name and face…you tried to trick me, you've got a lot of nerve…_

She was so awkward with everyone else. Harry wondered if maybe she wasn't as open with everyone like she was with him. Then again, he'd never given her the opportunity to not be open with him. Neville had once told him that he forced people to know him. Of course that had sparked an argument. But it came out that Neville hadn't meant that he did it on purpose. Harry was just Harry. He had a personality very much like his aunts. It wasn't a bad thing, but it tended to either put people off or make them want to know more. He was just more approachable then Lara, apparently. Harry had always been popular in school, never one to shy away from anything, which Lara said he must have gotten from his father, along with his hair (which she would then ruffle with a smirk).

Hermione sat down abruptly and started to massage out a kink in her calf.

Yeah, she was coming along fine.

_February- _

Hermione laughed as Harry showed her the proper way to roll out of a high leap. She hadn't really believed him when he told her that he didn't "enhance" his tumbling abilities with a little magic. She didn't understand, four months ago, that if you just trained and believed in your own skills you could pull off such impressive feats. She was nowhere near his level, but learning how to hang from a ledge properly was harder than she'd thought possible at first.

_Everybody here get it outta control get yo backs off the wall… boy the music makes me lose control… _

"You ever line dance?" Came the question out of Harry's mouth before any self editing could be done.

"What?"

"Line dance," he shrugged. "I learned one because I liked the music, you wanna try?"

_Down, down do your dance… they I'm a rapper and I say no… just let the music come from my soul… it don't matter if you're young or if you're old…_

"That's easy!" Hermione laughed as she and Harry danced across the floor.

"Yeah, this one is… It's a very basic pattern, it's meant for fun more than showing off. Though you could get really fancy," he grinned back as he kept within the basic framework, but added a showy turn on one hand instead of waving his knees at the last part. Hermione almost had to stop she was laughing so hard, but got into the spirit of it and flipped at her turn.

"There you go!"

"We should teach the rest of Gryffindor! They'd love it!"

_March-_

_Bounce, come on bounce, Slam the door, boom!… come get some of this, come and get the innuendo… _

Hermione wasn't sure how she was supposed to turn on her head, sure her hair was going to tangle horrendously, but even so… He was grinning at her again. It was this smile he had whenever he was sure she could do something, but she wasn't so positive.

_April-_

_Ma-ia-hii, Ma-ia-huu, Ma-ia-hoo, Ma-ia-haha_

_Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc…Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei/ Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma tau si dragostea din tei/ Mi-amintesc de ochii tai_.

Hermione was somewhat sure that Harry was making fun of her… He'd had this smile on his face since coming back from Easter weekend his aunt insisted he come home for. She still wasn't sure what this exercise had to do with anything. Sure, it was working out her arms, but they could be doing something… She stopped as she realized Harry was laughing. He couldn't stop, even as she glared at him.

"Sorry! I just… I couldn't help myself!"

"Harry!"

Ok, we'll stop, I promise… but you could help me out?" Harry asked as he let the mirth fade from his smile. Hermione was a little more wary, this was his, 'I need a favor' smile.

"How so?"

"My aunt has this bug up her butt… she wants me to learn to dance."

"All right…"

"Like dance, dance. Like ballroom… and she was talking to your mom apparently, and found out…"

"You want me to teach you to ballroom dance?" Hermione asked.

"Uummm.." That smile Hermione was wearing was quickly recognized as her 'devious-smile' number three… Number two was reserved for 'you need to study and I know how to make you', number one was just a mystery…

"Sure Harry. I'll teach you," she waved over to the cd player and asked, "Do you have any suitable music?"

_May-_

_The subject for tonight's lecture is rhythm, the beat, the driving force that holds our lives together… _

Harry had to smile whenever Hermione put on her teachers face. Stern, yet smirky, she was.

"Well, Harry, you've done well with Waltz, let's try something more complicated. Cha-Cha!" Harry was only eleven, but when Hermione grabbed his hands and put them on her hips he suddenly realized that he had hormones, and they were screaming at him. He pushed it aside quickly, Hermione was looking at him weird. And so started off the most uncoordinated day of Harry's life.

_First week in June-_

_I need your arms around me, I need to feel your touch. I need your understanding, I need your love so much… On the phone, long-long distance, always though such strong resistance…_

"Guys!" Neville burst into the room.

"Yeah?" Harry asked as Hermione quickly ducked under a side kick.

"It's started!"

"Does Dumbledore know?" Hermione tried to hook Harry's ankle and was thwarted when he simply skipped over her leg.

"He's answered a councils summons. He's not in the castle."

"How about McGonagall?"

"She doesn't believe us. I think Ron might have pushed the point too hard, she kicked us out."

"Well, do we really want to prove ourselves correct? Do you think we should follow?" Harry mused as Hermione grabbed his fist and pulled him into a tumble, landing on his stomach and smirking as he mulled over ideas.

_You ready? Lets go! Yeah! For those of you who wanta know what we're all about? It's like this ya'll, C'mon! Its 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will,, 5% pleasure, 50% pain and a hundred percent reason to remember the name…_

Harry sighed, he had to know what was really going on. This was the only way.

"All right, let's go."

_That night-_

It wasn't really all that hard to get past traps designed to stump one adult when you had an entire team of Gryffindor's known for their different special skills. It was discovered during the, now regular, Friday night karaoke/ line dance parties that Percy had a rather pleasant voice and (like his professional dragon trainer brother) a talent for calming large creatures. So he sat next to Fluffy and crooned a lullaby while reaching out to scratch the puppies neck(s) as his brothers and Harry and a few other students jumped down the trapdoor. He knew he wasn't supposed to let them go, he was a prefect for Merlin's sake, but saving the school was more important. Neville figured out the Devil's Snare and quickly got everyone to relax, he stayed behind with the Snare and tried to find the heart of it, Harry didn't begrudge him the opportunity, he'd been trying to find a source for years. Harry managed to get the Twins to help his obtain the flying key by handing them a couple of brooms and conjuring a couple of bludger bats to keep them from swarming him as he caught the one they needed. Ron played them through the giant chess set (only loosing himself ultimately) as Harry and Wood discovered that the pieces were impervious to explosions. (darn)

Thankfully the troll was knocked out already, though the smell had them rethinking passing it in favor of maybe just turning back around and avoiding the hideous stench. Hermione once again proved her brilliance as she solved the potions puzzle, though almost murdered Harry as he snatched the potion out of her hands and gulped the entire thing down before shrugging.

"You can't come, there was only enough for one, and I have a feeling," he shrugged when the others asked what he meant.

"I just think I was supposed to be here. All year has been building to a moment for me, and I'm pretty sure this gauntlet was for me. If I'm being arrogant, you can put up with it until after this is all done. Then you can scold me." and with that he jumped through the black flames, feeling only a cold tickle as he passed through.

There was that thrice be-damned mirror, and in front of it- Professor Quirrel.

He'd known that the teacher was odd, but odd was a slim word to use when the man unwraps his turban and you find out there's a demon on the backside of his head.

Harry didn't move from his spot next to the flame curtain. He just waited, waited while Quirrel struggled with the hissing voice, stuttering protests one minute while standing tall and shouting defiance the next. It was almost like Harry wasn't even in the room as the man fought with himself.

Quirrel somehow managed to get his body close enough to the mirror to fling out a suddenly independent hand and shove the mirror away, shattering it on the cold stone floor around Harry's feet.

"_You will regret that!" _The hissing voice growled out. "_Submit your will to mine!" _

Quirrel fell to his knees, his hands clawed at his ears, blood fell like tears from his eyes as he fought with every breath left in his broken down soul. Harry was still frozen, he didn't know what to do! He couldn't banish a spirit! He knew theory, but possession hadn't been covered yet in either his Hogwarts curriculum or his separate tutoring with Remus.

"Harry!" Quirrel gasped out, "I care not how you came here, or what brought you here at this time, but look to Hogwarts for the answers!"

"_Be still your mouth!" _

"He hid them," Quirrel shoved his face up and caught Harry's wide eyes with his own blood stained features. "He hid them, himself, in the ancestors…"

"_You will not steal my revenge from me!" _

"In the Hogwarts four… tell Lara…"

"_Be GONE!" _and with a final roar Quirrel gasped his last breath and a great inky black cloud shot from the back of his head and overtook Harry completely.

_The next morning- _

Harry woke with a start, expecting the dull cave and the broken mirror shards all around him. What he first saw when he opened his eyes though, was white.

"Ah, awake are we? Mr. Potter, how are you feeling?" Madame Pomfrey scooted Harry up in his bed so that he could look at her instead of straining to see around the room. He felt so weak…

"What happened?"

"I'm afraid that you got caught up in the wrong place and the wrong time, Mr. Potter." Dumbledoor slid through the half open doorway with a grace that belied his many years.

"What happened to Professor Quirrel?"

"I'm afraid that the Professor picked up a rather impressive curse while exploring Romania last year. I thought it just increased his already rampant paranoia, that he wasn't any danger to himself or others, but unfortunately as I was out of the castle trying to find some help for him, for he has gotten worse throughout the year, he decided to go down to the lower levels and retrieve something that I was keeping safe."

"The stone?"

"Yes, I guess it's not a secret any longer."

"Right."

"The curse literally shoved another personality into his head, so he was a bit of, what the muggles call, a nutcase. He had an aneurism."

"All right, blood pressure popped a vein in his head?"

"Yes," Dumbledoor shook his head in regret. "Unfortunately he was dead before any help could be summoned."

Harry wanted to call BULLSHIT! He wanted to shove what he knew was the truth into those twinkling blue eyes and call to the world that the Headmaster of their respectable school was masterminding a cover-up of epic proportions!

But he took a deep breath and looked Dumbledoor in the eye. Waiting for that slight push in his mind that revealed that all the Headmaster wanted to do was fuck with his memory. And he let the little shit spell in, played nice, let Dumbledoor think it had worked…

Then stomped the shit out of it.

* * *

This was just going to be a throw-away chapter. Something that I wrote because I was listening to music and an idea popped in there. I've known that I wanted Harry to train Hermione and possibly some of the rest of Gryffindor, not so much Ron mostly because they're not all that close in my story. Harry thinks Ron needs to grow up a little and Ron is still a little in awe of Harry. I'm not trying to super-power Hermione, but I do think she'd pick things up very quickly, especially if Harry is working her hard so he can get to the "fun stuff" quicker. Then I decided to take it all the way to the end of the year and pop in my ending… I hope you liked year one, and be assured I'm planning a very Tomb Raider summer break…

Disclaimer: I know that none of these songs were out in the proper time frame for Harry Potter, but then, we've already established that I have no time line in mind. Lara has to have her robotics, and I really like messing with technology vs. magic. So I've bumped up the time for about now-ish, so please no reviews on how I've 'Back-To-The-Futured this stuff. Thanks.

Let's Get Retarded- Black Eyed Peas

X- Xzibit

The Rain- Missy Elliot

In the Ayer- Flo Rida

Give It to Me- Timbaland

None Shall Pass- Aesop Rock

Lose Control- Missy Elliott

Cupid Shuffle- Cupid

Dragostea Din Tei- O-ZONE (if you don't get this joke then you've never watched You-Tube)

Hiphip Chinchin- Club Des Belugas

Remember the Name- Fort Minor


	15. Chapter 15

A bit of an update, I know I promised more Lara in this chapter, and I have delivered. For those of you who haven't seen "The Cradle of Life" a lot of this isn't going to make any sense to you. So A brief synopsis to bring us up to speed. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

In "Lara Croft :The Cradle of Life" we open with an earthquake in Greece. What better than an earthquake to bring out treasure hunters? Opening new pockets of areas that have been covered over for centuries, millennia (and so forth and so on). Lara goes to Greece, meets up with some rather good looking treasure hunters and their burly Greek dad, finds an anomaly that none of the other treasure seekers notice, and goes off in their boat to dive toward an underwater temple. While the brothers are gloating over treasure in the temple Lara notices a golden globe of some kind that requires much athleticism to get to (which requires a lot of stretching in her silver "wet suit"). Some bad guys show up, kill the brothers, and attempt to kill Lara with rather heavy gunfire which results in the temple collapsing and the bad guys running off with the orb, which Lara had partially scanned to send to Bryce before the action started. She later gets requested to go after the orb by the Queen of England once it comes out that the orb is really a map to get to "the Cradle of Life" which houses Pandora's box.

It turns out that the bad guys who now have the orb are part of a Chinese Triad and Lara needs help to locate them- enter : Terry Sheridan, the man who once stole Lara's heart and then turned it into mush while flipping on his country and eventually getting caught and sent to prison in Germany. We find him doing shirtless upside down push ups in his jail cell, and we melt a little when he smiles because he is played by the very excellent Gerard Butler (yummy ^_^ ). Anyway, she gets him out of jail, a very sweet deal where he is absolved of all crimes and given a tidy sum to help her find the triad, which he eventually takes after much teasing and sexual innuendo that Lara pretends she isn't affected by. They find the triad, and after many encounters still fail to grab the orb before it switches hands to the main bad guy, a man named Reiss. Reiss plans to find Pandora's box and make some sort of chemical weapon from it, in which his company will have the only antidote (yada yada yada, cliché, cliché, cliché). The funniest thing about Reiss, though, happens to be his right hand man, his mercenary Sean. And if anyone here has seen "SLC Punks" we know this face from when he was shooting at a car in Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Eventually Lara gets the orb from Reiss and then finds out that the Cradle of Life is in Africa (of course it is) and during this time she ducks away from Sheridan, leaving him behind. Of course he follows her, as do the bad guys. But the bad guys don't really follow her so much as go to England and kidnap Bryce and Hilary, listening in while Bryce decodes the orb, even though Bryce tries to flub it. No such luck, for as intelligent as Lara is, she knows when Bryce is lying to her, but can't tell when he's in trouble. (le sigh, plot holes and devices in which the heroine glibly throws out a remark that he's acting weird but doesn't give it a second thought afterwards- oh well)

Lara meets up with an African friend, Kosa, who takes her to a wise man in a village who knows all about the Cradle of Life, warns her to stay away, and eventually gives into her insistence that there are bad men after the box who won't care about keeping the world safe like she does. He gives her warriors to guide her on her way. After making us care about some of these guys (a cute dialogue where Kosa translates some warrior bravado and they make fun of Lara's accent a bit) The mercenaries show up in helicopters and shoot them all down (guns vs. spears, yeah, right). Reiss jumps out, a little speech about how he needs her to guide him, she refuses and he shows her that he's kidnapped Hilary and Bryce, who apologize for getting caught and she agrees to take Reiss and her men to Pandora's box because they're all the family she has and she's sure she can outsmart the bad guys at some point along the way.

That's where we are going to come in… with a little bit of build up and back story from Harry first.

So, enjoy!

* * *

Harry smiled as he got off the Hogwarts Express. Hermione was trying to stuff a bit more intelligence into Ron's thick skull, and it didn't seem to be working.

"Hermione, Skabber's has been like this since I got him from Percy," Ron insisted. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with him. He's just high strung!"

"I still think he should get to a vet, Ron. That can't be healthy for him!"

"He has lost a lot of fur since the start of the year Ron."

"Don't you start," he glared at Harry as the younger boy chuckled. "He's just getting old! That's it. Now drop it."

"All right," Hermione sighed, giving up on changing Ron's mind. "Where's your Aunt?" She asked Harry. It was all the boy could talk about on the way home. His Aunt was picking him up and they were going to Greece to dive for sunken treasure. There had been an earthquake that necessitated her going ahead about a week earlier. But she was going to pick him up, just as she dropped him off, full circle she insisted.

"She'll be here," Harry insisted as Hermione's parents showed up and glomped their daughter.

* * *

"Terry Sheri-" Bryce started, but before the last syllable was uttered Harry jumped to his feet.

"NO! No! No!" Harry might have believed he'd outgrown temper tantrums pretty early on in his life, but if the weather outside of Bryce's trailer was to be noted, Harry's temper was volatile.

"Harry," Hilary placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"No! He's in PRISON, she can't be… gallivanting around Hong Kong with Terry -Fucking- Sheridan!"

"Well, she is," Hilary backed off when Harry shrugged his hand away.

"He broke her heart!"

"And you broke his ribs," Bryce sighed. "That was marvelous by the by."

"I was trying to puncture his heart," Harry muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. He'd been eight at the time, and he truly thought (and still did) that a broken heart deserved a broken heart.

"Harry," Hilary tried again.

"No, Hilary, I'm not discussing this. She's not here, where she's supposed to be. She's out with the worst possible person to ever back ANYONE up, and I'm pissed. I'm going for a walk before I blow up Bryce's trailer."

"Good! Thank you! We'll call you back when she contacts again."

"Fine."

* * *

"Hey, Sean? Do me a favor?"

"What?" The mercenary sighed.

"Say, "Sink! Sink you fool!" please?" the puppy eyes Harry launched at him were probably the only thing keeping the man from lunging at him. It was throwing off his instincts, sneers and trembling lips in the same breath…

If the kid wasn't dead by the end of this mission Sean was going to kill him. It wasn't so much that the brat was making jokes at his expense. No, it was that he didn't understand the jokes… but if the snorting behind him was any indication, some of his men did.

* * *

He wasn't entirely sure how he got there. "There" being on his ass in Africa with his hands tied behind his back, his man-nannies in a similar position to either side of him, with his aunt standing in front of him, her lips set in as thin a line as the plump appendages could manage. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't what constituted an army behind him, at least five of the mercenary scum pointing their automatic guns right at his head.

Apparently mercenaries didn't appreciate his wit, as evidenced by the sour looks on the faces of three men, now sporting stylish pink Mohawks. They knew he was weird, but seemed to think that immobilizing his arms made the odd things impossible for him to do. He decided to let them keep thinking that.

His Aunt, however, was less fooled and it only took a glare for him to acknowledge that, yes, he could leave whenever he wanted. But he wasn't going to. He'd gone along with them because they'd taken Bryce and Hilary, keeping them far enough away that he couldn't get them out as well. Now he realized they were just leverage for something Lara was doing.

"Hello Kosa," Harry grinned at the tall black man.

"Arry," he grinned as well, shiny white teeth from a dark smile. "What are you doing 'ere?"

"Ohh, just hanging around," he shrugged. "School year's over, got home, shouted at the wonder twins here for a bit… by the way, Aunt Lara, where the fuck is that prick Sheridan? I owe him a kick to the shins."

"Harry, watch your language," she grimaced as Reiss pressed his gun to the top of Harry's head.

"Now that this touching reunion is over, Lara, I'm sure you're just as anxious as I am to get this adventure over with. Come with me, help me, I'll make it worth your while." Gently he tapped the barrel onto Harry's head. Harry might have protested the treatment, if Lara hadn't glared at him, shaking her head almost imperceptibly.

"Don't tell me you're not tempted."

"That's what got Pandora into trouble," Lara retorted.

"They told me you wouldn't do it, I told them you would, rather than loose your family," Reiss grabbed the back of Harry's shirt and pulled the boy to his feet.

"Fucking bastard," Harry muttered under his breath as Lara pursed her lips.

"It's just beyond the canyon Lara," Kosa muttered, quietly, but loud enough for Reiss to hear.

"Such a short walk… might save your friends," Reiss grinned at Kosa, unaware that the guide meant for him to hear.

"Well, if it spares my family, I'm up for a walk. But Reiss, they stay here," Lara glared as Reiss laughed.

"They stay here," he pointed his gun at Hilary and Bryce. "The brat stays with me."

"No," Lara started forward, but was pulled back by the enforcers behind her.

"Don't worry about me Aunt Lara, it'll be like my feet aren't even touching the ground. You know how quietly I walk."

"Harry," Lara warned. She didn't like the way he was studying the trees. It was as if he knew something about the ugly gnarled things. She didn't care what he had up his sleeve, what he learned at that school of his, she didn't want him in danger.

"You won't even notice I'm there," he promised.

"Now that's a good lad," Reiss smirked as he pushed Harry in front of him, causing the normally nimble boy to stumble.

As he fell to the ground he twisted his body in a way that somehow left his tied arms in front of him instead of behind. Sean blinked in confusion, how the hell had that brat…?

"Do you think you could untie me papa Sean? We might be heading into a dangerous area, I'd prefer to have my hands free."

"Walk you little -" before he could utter a foul derogatory comment Reiss handed him a bowie knife.

"Just let the child walk, keep your gun on him, and shoot him if he does anything odd."

"Trust me, you won't even hear a peep from me, promise!" Harry raised his left hand awkwardly, trying to swear was difficult when your hands were tied together. "Marauders honor!"

* * *

"Move, baby," Sean sneered at Lara as she paused. She thought she'd heard something, some sort of rumbling, saw some kind of shadow moving… Then of course she heard Harry growling.

"You call my Aunt "baby" one more time, I'm going to punch you in the ass."

"You can try you little monkey." Sean knelt down to sneer at Harry's eye level, which was probably the only thing that saved his life for at that moment a deep black shadow dove for his head. It slashed through the air directly above him, and then melted into the ground behind Harry's back.

"What was that?" One of the men shouted, then screamed as something snatched the back of his shirt and dragged him into the shadows of the trees. One by one the mercenary's started disappearing, gun shots rang out, echoing throughout the gnarled wood, screams rang in Harry's ears.

"What are you doing? Stay in formation!" Reiss commanded, but between the growling, the crumbling sounds that seemed to come from the creatures as they pulled their victims into crevices and leaving disgusting smears of blood behind, no one seemed to be listening.

"They're reacting to movement!" Lara shouted, keeping as still as she possibly could.

"We're close then! Take me to it!"

"I don't know how!" Lara protested, then took an aborted step further as Reiss once again pointed his gun at Harry's head.

"Do it NOW!"

"You're the one who wanted to take a walk! So start walking!" Lara snapped, then flinched as Reiss fired a bullet not an inch from the top of Harry's head. Sean, behind Harry, gripped his shoulder painfully.

"Hey, Aunt Lara, are you as done with this as I am?"

"Oh, beyond done Harry," she glared at Reiss, then nodded to her nephew, giving him whatever permission he was waiting for.

"Goody, I get to show you what I learned in school this year!" He enthused, "and why I'm never going back!"

"We're not getting into this right now Harry," Lara sighed at the fake wonder in Harry's voice.

"_Expelliarmus_!" He shoved his hand, palm out, at Reiss, and snorted as the man fell back, his gun tossed in the air from a suddenly numb hand. The man landed with a thump on the cold, hard, ground. He froze, shaking just the tiniest bit as he waited for a shadow creature to grab him. Unfortunately Harry was not fast enough to disarm Sean as well and the Austrian mercenary tightened his grip on his shoulder, his knife then held at Harry's throat. Lara started forward, intending to smash the man's face in, but stopped as he moved the knife, a small line of blood started forming on Harry's neck.

Harry inhaled briefly, then almost sub vocally whimpered as the slight cut grew worse at the movement.

"Oh no you don't."

"Show me to the Cradle Lara, or I'll have Sean cut the brat's throat right now," Reiss almost growled as he fought for composure. Even when he got the box, he wasn't sure if he would let the child go, kill him or just knock him unconscious and take him for further research. He'd never felt anything like that before. It was as if a large gust of wind had just pushed him over, tugging the gun from his hand as he went.

"All right," Lara sighed, meeting Harry's eyes, trying to tell him that she'd do the work now, it was her job to save him, not the other way around. "I'll need the orb."

"Don't think you can outwit me,"

"Do you want me to do this or not?" A low growl emanated from behind Reiss, he almost jumped to his feet to start running before he remembered that would be a large error on his part.

"Here," he tossed the orb to Lara before he could change his mind.

Though Harry had indicated he'd put a spell on Lara to minimize her foot steps, she knew that running would negate it a bit. She wanted to fake them out a little, make it seem like she had no advantage over them, so she pounded her feet as hard as she could, running to what looked like an ant hill to slam dunk the orb inside. As she ran she could feel the ground beneath her shake, see the shadows out of the corner of her eyes, going to swipe at her and missing by just a hairs breadth, miscalculating where exactly she was because they didn't sense her footfalls right away, but rather the effect of the shock wave afterwards. She was sure it looked pretty impressive and down right foolish by Reiss's standards, but it convinced him that she was at least on the level about this.

"Sean, stay here with the brat. If she comes up without me, kill him."

* * *

As Lara and Reiss disappeared down the rabbit hole Harry felt, more than saw, the ground at his feet shift a bit.

"You know, I bet those shadow things are Guardians. I read about them at school."

"What weird school do you go to?" Sean asked, still a little out of sorts from watching his entire unit getting munched on by monster things.

"A Wizarding school, so very dull, actually. Really, the only redeeming feature was the library." Harry slowly lifted his hand up, almost touching the knife held tightly at his throat, but not yet. Instead he gathered a bit of the dripping blood and sighed. "There is something you can do to protect yourself from them, even chat a bit. They're not stupid creatures you know, on the contrary." Taking the blood he slowly traced a pattern on the inside of his left forearm. It looked like a sun burst pattern with a squiggly snake inside.

"Really? Well they looked rather blood thirsty to me."

"Yeah, and you gunned down several warriors who had no defense against you and your stupid bullets," Harry retorted, still sick to his stomach remembering Kosa's friends falling, the automatic gunfire echoing through out the plains. "So really, how are you any different from them?"

"I'm not a monster."

"Oh, I beg to differ," he hesitated his retort as the knife was held a bit tighter.

"You said there was a protection from these Shadow beasts?"

"Yes, but why would I tell you?"

"If you don't, I'll slit your throat," he chuckled, happy at finally getting the upper hand on the child.

"Fine, but I need your arm."

"No tricks, brat."

"No tricks," Harry assured, holding up his own arm as proof, showing Sean the bloody stain.

It took a little fumbling, but Sean managed to hold out his own forearm in front of Harry, the knife held at an awkward angle, Harry's back pressed firmly to his chest. It was rather uncomfortable, the Austrian's breath at Harry's ear, panting slightly as he was still trying to calm his rather manic fear.

Harry started to trace a symbol on Sean's arm, starting with the sunburst, then following up with what might have looked like a snake but was sprouting legs, a chameleon. Obviously Sean hadn't really paid much attention to the snake on Harry's arm, or he would have pointed out the discrepancy, but he was too busy feeling a slight sense of relief as Harry finished.

Harry took advantage of the momentary comfort to shove his heel into Sean's instep, pushing his knife hand away from his neck as he twisted away and fell prostrate on the ground.

As his blood from his dripping neck soaked into the dirt a few Shadow Guardians emerged, stopping at the sensation of trembling, what sounded like a young boys sobs. "Help me," Harry begged, pressing his forearm down on the ground, giving them a taste of his blood mixed with their sigil. As they acknowledged the young wizard and the plea in his voice (if not understanding the actual words) they felt the connection of his enemy, decorated in his blood. Like blood hounds they honed in on the scent, Sean didn't even have time to scream as they pounced and dragged him into the earth at his feet, leaving nothing more than a bloody smear behind.

Harry stood, recasting the spell to keep his footsteps light, knowing that although the Guardians had protected him they were still annoyed by heavy vibrations. It just wouldn't do to pester your hosts.

And speaking of pestering… Harry looked up as a helicopter came to hover directly over his head, a rope uncoiled from the top, a man started rappelling down. Of all the men he really never wanted to see again, Terry Sheridan had to be in the top five.

"Harry," Terry paused his decent into the gaping hole, resting his feet on the very ledge. "Lara down here?"

"Yes," he glared at the man.

"Look, Harry I know we didn't get off on the right foot, if I had a chance to do it all over again," Harry interrupted, still amazed at the mans audacity. Trying to fix anything with him while Lara was down there fighting for her life and the continued existence of the world.

"No Terry, you don't get a "chance" this time. You do it right or I hunt you down and finish the job I started the last time I saw you!"

"You're still a stuck up little prince aren't you?" Terry sneered. Harry sneered right back.

"That may be Terry, but at least I'm not a lying little prick like you," and he cursed that Lara was in trouble and maybe waiting for back up. He didn't have the opportunity he wanted to kick Sheridan in the shins and maybe blast his face full of childish pimples.

"I'm going to get Lara, and when we get back, you and I, child, are going to have a little chat."

"I look forward to it, now let's get!"

"You're not coming!"

"You're wasting time," Harry snapped as he grabbed the rope just beneath Terry's feet. Taking a preparatory breath he jumped into the hole.

* * *

When Harry and Terry caught up with Lara she was dangling over black acid, her ponytail smoking as it made contact. She was refusing to reach toward the golden box, Reiss was taunting her with horrific thoughts of what he would do to Harry if she didn't comply.

"It is impossible to reach," she repeated, stubbornly.

"Take it!" Reiss insisted. "Or I'll just drop you and grab the boy, I'm sure that with his many talents it would be easy for him to get that box."

"You'd be right about that," Harry smiled and gestured with his hand, levitating the box over the black acid while Terry gaped at him in shock.

"What the hell?"

"You've missed a lot while you were in prison Terry," Harry grunted, the box was a lot heavier than anything else he'd floated while not using his wand. It was hard to keep in the air.

"Harry," Lara warned, still dangling over the deadly pool as Reiss held the edge of her jacket. Just a simple release from the man and his aunt would be in an awful lot of trouble.

"Bring it over here boy, or I'll drop her in."

"I don't know if I can! Aunt Lara!" Harry made up his mind as Reiss jerked the jacket, causing Lara to loose another inch of hair. He dropped the box and pulled with all his might at Lara, "_Accio_!" he shouted, unbalancing Reiss as Lara came tumbling toward him. Reiss stumbled at the edge of the pool for what seemed like forever as Lara crashed into her nephew and Harry collapsed in her arms, completely drained, passed out. Lara watched, holding Harry close, as Reiss lost his balance completely and fell into the acid, screaming all the while. Echoing the screams throughout the cavern as his body refused to believe what his mind was already shouting at him. He was dead. He just didn't know it yet.

"Well, let's get out of here," Terry chuckled, scooping up the box, which had landed just close enough to the edge for him to grab it.

"Terry, what are you doing?" Lara was afraid to ask, afraid to demand, but she looked down at Harry and set her features to stubborn insistence instead of the fear that wanted to shine from her.

"You're joking right? We're taking this with us! This is ours!" she could see it in his mouth, that line that demanded, that almost scowl that said he truly did not understand her terror.

"You're not walking out of here with that box." She spoke quietly, her hand gently tracing the thin bloody line on Harry's neck.

"So you're saying we just leave it? When it's worth a fortune?"

"It could kill millions of innocent people."

"Now you're being dramatic," he scoffed.

"Put it back."

"No," he grinned as she pulled out Reiss's handgun from where he dropped it early in their fight to the box.

"Put it back."

"Well, you do have authorization to kill me, better do it then. Because if you think standing in front of me is going to be enough… heh. You don't have it in you to stop me." he stood in front of her, looked down at Harry, resting in her arms. "Yeah, because all your beliefs, all your ideals, they're not real. Your love is real, and you've loved me. You think you're strong, but you'll not choose empty ideals over me. Now move."

"No, Terry. I'll not let you leave with that box," a single tear trailed down her cheek, she tugged Harry closer and looked down at his still face. Only the fact that his chest was rising with breath stopped the fear from overwhelming her. "You're right, my love is real. You take that box out of here and you'll hurt everything I've ever loved, everyone. And I will not let you harm Harry. Never." Seeing the determination in her eyes, hearing the final judgment coming from her lips, Terry froze. There was a steel cold echo in her final plea. "Now put the box down."

"Aunt Lara?" Harry whimpered softly, Lara looked down, her lips trembling.

"Yes Harry?" She whispered to the boy. He merely snorted a little and adjusted his head so it was more comfortable on her shoulder.

"Love you," and he quietly passed out again. There was a long silence, in which Terry just stared at the boy, seeing (perhaps for the first time in his life) genuine unconditional love.

"I'm sorry," as Terry knelt next to Lara he felt so completely confused he had no idea what to do next.

"Sorry? For what?"

"Just," he looked down at the box and sighed, and truly without thinking did the first unselfish act he'd ever done, throwing it with a quick motion back into the black pool of acid. "Sorry."

They watched, together, as the golden box sunk into the liquid, leaving behind a faint taint of smoke. Terry got back to his feet and held out his arms. "I'll carry him back to the chopper, you're exhausted."

Lara looked up at him and smirked a bit. "We better not tell him, he still wants to kick you in the shins."

"Little jerk," Terry muttered as he adjust the boy into his arms.

"Yeah, well, you deserved it."

"He's already cracked up my ribs," he complained as Harry's head lulled on his shoulder.

"Yes, and he was royally pissed that it didn't result in your immediate death," Lara found herself giggling, perhaps a bit hysterically as Terry gaped at her.

"What?"

"Well, I'm sure he'll be disappointed when I tell him to leave you alone," Lara stumbled a little over the uneven ground, but smiled when she saw the rappelling rig. "Let's hook him up first, the guys can pull him up and…" she yawned as all her adrenaline started bombing out.

"Then we'll hook you up," Terry insisted as he started buckling Harry into the strapping. He swore a bit as a rope ladder fell, hitting him over the head.

"Or we can just climb up as they winch up Harry." Lara suggested with a wry grin.

"Lady's first," he insisted as Harry started to rise into the air.

"You just want to watch my bum," Lara accused with a little lady-like sniff.

"I was only thinking that you were tired and might need help!" Terry insisted, then laughed, "Though the view is magnificent to behold!"

* * *

So there it is, the next chapter and it only took me four months to get off my ass and do it! There will be more summer stuff, this only happened in the first week of vacation, so there's plenty more to explore in the Tomb Raider world! Also, don't take Harry's little ramblings to heart, I know I've said before that I've decided whether or not he'll be going back to Hogwarts, but really I haven't. I won't know, I think, until I sit down and actually write it.

also I put in multiple line breaks during what is obviously one continuous scene. why did i do so? because there was a passage of time or a major change in character focusing. it is meant to make it easier to read. if it's not, please let me know. i don't have a beta, so any mistakes are all my own! thanks!

I stole liberally from the transcript to Cradle of Life, and I want to reiterate that I do not own Lara Croft or Harry Potter, I merely like to play with them from time to time.

In the movie Terry does try to leave with the box, Lara does kill him for it. I think he honestly doesn't believe that the box could be so dangerous. He doesn't have much experience with the mystical side of things like Lara had in original cannon (and especially now with Harry as her nephew!). So I figured I'd give him another chance (mostly because he is a hunka-hunka burnin love). But he won't be getting back with Lara, at least not permanently. Maybe he'll stick around for the summer, but I see him and her in different places. I guess I'll just have to write more to find out!

A little explanation on the symbols Harry painted with his blood on himself and Sean. I used the sunburst for the rather obvious reasoning of shadow creatures vs. sunlight. The snake on Harry hasn't anything to do with Voldemort or that fact that he's a parsel tongue, but more the fact that in Africa a snake symbol (python really) is a totem that acts as a spiritual medium… all the better to hear you with my dear, get it? The chameleon he painted on Sean's arm in his own blood because "the accidental death of a chameleon may mean the death of a child", as indicated by a book on jewelry symbolism I have. I figure it has to do with innocence and karma coming to screw you over. So Sean, you hurt a kid, you pay for it. Dumb ass.

Lines I wanted to use, but couldn't fit anywhere… but still wanted to share cause they tickle my funny bone:

* * *

"I thought you said you 'weren't' going to blow anything up?"

"Well, it wasn't in the plan…"

* * *

"Come over here."

"Why? Are you going to hurt me? Cause I kinda… like that."


	16. Chapter 16

Sorry about my loooooong silence. I have no excuse, but now I am writing again and I felt this might be nice to give you all to tide you over until I have a real chapter.

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! They've been making me think, and I have had to rearrangea few things to allow for the odd scrambling in my brain pan. So that being said, short chapter, but the answer to a very important question most of you had about what Harry was going to do.

* * *

Neville sighed as Harry griped at him. It had been happening on and off since the elder of the two informed the younger that he would be returning to Hogwarts in the fall.

"Why, oh why? Has something physically happened to your brain? Are you deficient in some way that I never cottoned on to?" Harry jumped from hedge to cobblestone path, right in front of Neville, making the boy stop.

"Harry, I know you've been on the fence about this, but I haven't been." Neville took a deep breath and continued. "I am the last male Longbottom, I will inherit my father's titles. There is a certain amount of responsibility that comes with that, and since I can home school normal classes I won't really be missing out on anything. If I didn't go to Hogwarts I would be neglecting hundreds of years of tradition, and that's something, in good conscious, I can't do."

It went unsaid that Harry was in the same boat. As the last Potter he had the same responsibilities that Neville had just thrust in his face. Really it was all about networking. If Harry didn't go to Hogwarts he wouldn't meet the same future decision makers of their government, he wouldn't have all the inside information because he wouldn't be there to collect. He wouldn't really know all of the traditions because he'd have to learn them out of books, and that wasn't the same as learning from peers and the teachers that were provided at Hogwarts.

And Harry had been on the fence with his decision to return to Hogwarts. He missed his regular school and classmates, he missed getting tutored by Remus and coming up with just outlandish ideas, being indulged enough that he could basically abandon all else until those ideas came to fruition or crashed and burned. He was a very hands on learner, a lot of Hogwarts curriculum was by rote instead of discovery. There was nothing that said he couldn't work on his own, but it was harder without an indulgent Remus, or a pointedly intelligent Lara helping him.

On the other hand, he had made a lot of friends in Hogwarts, ones he found himself missing when he woke up in the morning and realized he wouldn't see them that day. Neville was always the exception to that, but what was he going to do when he woke up this fall and realized that Neville was no longer just a phone call away?

"Damn it."

* * *

He could hear her squeal of delight coming from a mile away. The tight hug that she glomped him with he took with a (faked) air of exasperation. In reality though, he was happy to see her too.

Lara watched the kids as they gathered in their huddle, Harry, Hermione, Neville. The adults indulgently allowed them the time to catch up, as they were shooed away from the middle of Diagon Alley.

Hermione proudly told Harry of the martial arts classes she stumbled upon while they vacationed extensively in Italy, of the projects she had theorized while unable to practically apply, of the support she had gotten from her local school as she set up her classes for home study. Harry listened and added suggestions that could help some of her ideas along, and quietly informed her that they could probably find materials for most of her hopes in the Alley as they shopped for school supplies.

The parents decided to stop for some coffee and a quick chat while the kids took it upon themselves to scout out the alley and do some preliminary purchases.

"So I met these guys in Italy, they took some martial arts classes with me, and I saw them jumping around the parking lot like monkeys, you know, like you've been training me? Sometimes they called it Parkour, other times free-running. I didn't want to sound like a moron, so I didn't ask. What's the difference?"

Harry grinned, just knowing that there were no "How-to Parkour" books in the library.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't really understand myself that there was a difference until I talked with some guys in Poland a few years ago," Harry admitted. He'd just followed his aunt on her training runs and picked up multiple ways to get over objects that she just jumped, considering how much smaller he was than her. He'd found more information by accident on-line, and stumbled across the Parkour nuts, like Kong, in Poland.

"You see Hermione, Parkour was invented as a way to get from point A to point B in as little time as possible. If that meant jumping over stuff or climbing it, if that was more efficient, then that's what it took. Free-running is the same basic concept, but doing it in a flashy way, by flipping over an object instead of just jumping it, or tumbling across a wall instead of just running next to it. Got the difference?"

"So that's why you have me practicing gymnastics all the time? Because you like showing off?"

"It takes more strength in your entire body to free-run. You have to have more upper body strength to haul your body into flips, or force your entire length into a no hand cartwheel. You get it? We're becoming lean, mean, ass kicking, magic making machines! By the time we're through with Hogwarts we'll be intelligent, healthy and more than inordinately talented. I think we're training ourselves right into what ever future we want!"

"And what future is that for you, may I ask, Harry Potter?"

"It can't be HARRY POTTER!" The little group of preteens were shocked into a standstill as they entered the bookstore.

"Um, yes it can," Harry muttered in confusion as he noted the huge crowd that was stuffed in Flourish and Blotts all turning to look at him. A man with an inordinate number of pearly white teeth shoved his way through the crowded shop and grabbed for Harry's arm. Unfortunately he overextended and missed when Harry spun agilely out of his way, hiding behind Neville as the older gentleman hurriedly righted himself. They ended up playing ring-around the Neville for several minutes as Hermione giggled to herself and asked the cashier to put together enough school packets for the three of them. It was obvious, to her at least, that they'd interrupted a book signing and with all the press around Harry wasn't going to want to stay for very long.

"If you could just have them delivered to Croft Manor, put them on our tabs please?"

"Of course Miss. Granger," came the unruffled reply. "Now if you could get young Mr. Potter away so I can get rid of this pop-in-jay author, I'd appreciate it."

"Certainly Mr. Flourish, I'll do my best," of course then she tuned into whatever it was the annoying author was saying and blanched. "That loudmouth is going to be our Defense Teacher?"

"I'm afraid so young Miss," he shrugged. "I'd recommend that you not buy more than you need, so between the three of you I'll just send one set of his, ahem, "required reading" shall I?"

"Please. I don't want to spend any more money on that man then I have to."

They managed to exit the bookstore without a photo op between Mr (ahem, Professor) Lockhart and Harry that he seemed to so desperately want.

"Bet you just loved that, didn't you Potter?" Malfoy smirked as Harry took a deep breath of clean air.

"I think that man bathes in Violet oil," Harry remarked, completely ignoring Draco's taunt. He was dizzy, short of breath, and not feeling very well at all. He coughed out a plume of purple smoke and nodded. "Yep, Violets… I think I'm going to be sick," and with that announcement Neville, who'd known Harry the longest and knew when he wasn't being facetious, backed away from his friend. Unfortunately Draco didn't take the warning to heart and stepped closer, just in time for Harry's lunch to be deposited all over the front of his robes. Straightening a bit as Draco stood there, completely stunned, Harry managed a slightly sheepish apology before declaring, "And now I think I'm going to pass out." while tipping back and directly into Neville's arms.

* * *

I fudged the timeline a bit. I know that the group hadn't gone to diagon alley for school supplies until maybe the week before school, but i am placing this about a month before hogwarts starts up again. Harry and Lara are going to bond a little in the next chapter and I want time to deal with that. So no complaints about my times being wrong!


End file.
